A production of South Carolina ETV in association with the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism.

♪ (male singer) ♪ Oh, I have found the sweetest place ♪ ♪ where people smile and know my name.

♪ ♪ Oh, I have found the sweetest land ♪ ♪ as warm as sun and cool as rain.

♪ ♪ A place so faaarrr... from all we had, ♪ ♪ a place so far from all we've known, ♪ ♪ a quiet place that we can love ♪ ♪ and call our home.

♪♪♪ ♪ ♪ [water rippling] (Joanna Angle) Some archaeologists believe that the Great Wagon Road, which stretched from Pennsylvania to Georgia, was established as early as 10,000 years ago.

Here, where the road crossed the Catawba River, Native Americans enhanced a natural, shallow ford by collecting large stones and laying them as an underwater roadbed.

The crossing and the road on either side came to be known as Nation Ford, after the Catawba Indian Nation towns they joined.

Among the first white people to travel Nation Ford were Thomas and Elizabeth Spratt, who camped near here between 1755 and 1760.

Hospitable Catawbas invited them to stay and adopted Thomas Spratt as one of their own, calling him Kanawha , "friendly brother."

[water rippling] At the request of the peaceful Catawbas, a fort was built by the British as protection against the hostile Shawnee and Cherokee tribes.

When a gristmill was erected on Steele Creek around 1775, the present-day town had its beginning and today is the only place in America named Fort Mill.

Welcome to Fort Mill and to "Palmetto Places," a series that explores and celebrates South Carolina's small towns and countryside.

I'm Joanna Angle.

This is Confederate Park, a place dear to the hearts of Fort Mill residents.

It was initiated by Captain Samuel E. White just after the War Between the States ended.

Captain White, a Confederate officer, provided the land and primary funding for the four monuments, which he had custom-made.

The first, unveiled in 1891, was this granite figure of a Confederate soldier with the inscription, "Defenders of State Sovereignty."

One hundred seventy-one veterans from the Fort Mill area are listed.

The second monument, placed in 1895, is of marble and was affectionately dedicated to the women of the Confederacy who, quote, "...midst the gloom of war were heroines "in the strife to perpetuate their noble sacrifices on the altar of our common country."

That same year this slender obelisk was presented as tribute "to the faithful slaves "who, loyal to a sacred trust, "toiled for the support of the Army "with matchless devotion and with sterling fidelity, guarded our defenseless homes, women, and children."

The last monument was added in 1900 to honor the 17 Catawba Indians who had enlisted in the Confederate Army.

Originally the figure had a bow with drawn arrow, but the brave warrior lost his weapons and an arm when a storm toppled part of a large oak tree.

The bandstand was an afterthought not in Captain White's plans.

It was added at the suggestion of outgoing Mayor W. B. Meacham.

The mayor proposed using the town's $50 surplus to build this small structure to attract all those men whose daily practice it was to sit on the town hall porch, talking, chewing tobacco, and whittling.

Captain White would surely have approved, for years earlier, he had placed a whittling machine and a large supply of whittling wood near the park for anyone who cared to sit, whittle, and ponder.

[vehicular sounds] [cicadas buzzing] In 1901, it was decided to acquire some surplus cannon as war relics for the park.

When they arrived by train, the crew unloading them dropped them right on top of a main water pipe, crushing it, sending water shooting skyward like a geyser.

The town water tank drained, creating a small lake around the cannon, which sank into deepening mud.

[vehicular sounds] After days of futile attempts to extricate them, a huge, bearded man appeared and offered to free the cannon and move them to the park for a fee of $100.

The townspeople, thinking the stranger unlikely to accomplish this feat, agreed.

He returned the next morning with several mules, ropes, and pulleys, and using the park's big trees as anchors, skidded the cannon into place before noon, collected his $100, and left town.

Begin your stay in Fort Mill at the Chamber of Commerce office, housed in this bright red, retired caboose.

Stroll Main Street, a thriving mix of service businesses and specialty retail.

Fort Mill is an antique enthusiast's bonanza, with an auction house and numerous shops filled with vintage treasures.

Visitors can learn about Southern regional antiques, particularly pieces made in York County, from longtime collector and dealer Don Lomax.

[door chimes jingling] [vehicular sounds] These quilts are a good example of York County quilts.

The top quilt is an appliqué, has some damage, but still a very nice quilt that could be repaired.

The second quilt is a patchwork quilt made of cotton.

The third one is also a patchwork quilt, but it has rayon and cotton.

On these quilts there, you need to count the stitches per inch.

The more stitches per inch, usually the better quilt.

Also, a good way to buy quilts is know who you're buying from, because there are imports.

They make a beautiful quilt, but they're not York County quilts.

These quilts here came from a radius of 30 miles of Fort Mill.

York, McConnell, and Rock Hill, South Carolina, is where these three quilts came from.

Care for the quilts.

Don't put 'em in the washing machine.

Don't drive nails in 'em and hang 'em on the wall or stick tacks in 'em.

Make some sort of hanger that you can display 'em, and not only display 'em, use 'em.

That's what they're made for.

These quilts are functional quilts made... hand stitched by a lot of love and labor, and should enhance anyone's home, to either display 'em or use 'em.

[vehicular sounds] Joanna, we were talking about primitives earlier.

Best indication that I've found in a long time of a York County primitive... you're looking at it, found right here in Fort Mill in a barn about five miles... from this town center here.

My definition of a primitive is something that is used and made by a person that probably was not a skilled craftsman, but knew what he wanted, and it was functional, a utilitarian item.

This at one time was a dish cabinet.

It had a rail across here, which has long been lost, a hundred years ago.

It's been painted four or five times, probably, but it should be left as is.

Believe me, that is the true indication of a primitive.

Shiny and glossy is not what a primitive is all about.

It's as found.

If we could get this down, and some people can, to the original paint, a mustard paint, it'd be wonderful, and leave it in that condition.

But don't take all the paint off it.

Again, it was used for so many reasons.

Storage...dishes, plates, silverware, whatever.

If they wanted to throw their coat in there they did.

But a beautiful indication of a primitive.

Also, a wonderful indication of bootjack legs.

You can see from the side here, they're a little bit higher than most bootjacks.

But to me, if you want to see a nice South Carolina, York County primitive, right here it is.

Here is another example of a primitive... not that much of a primitive, just a nice, Early American blanket chest, made in York County, found in Clover, out of heart pine.

They made 'em out of walnut, pine, and whatever, but everybody talks about heart pine.

Here is a true example of heart pine.

Heart pine is virgin-growth pine.

Most of it was grown from Virginia on into Georgia, and this area had plenty of it.

This tree had to be tremendous.

This board, as you see, is one board.

It took a monster tree to do that.

The craftsman here did not dovetail it.

Maybe he didn't need to.

He was in a hurry and wanted to get it done but did a wonderful job of construction, and it's functional.

It's a place to store your quilts... a fine example of York County southern furniture.

You don't have to always go to Charleston to find good furniture.

Another example came out of Prosperity, South Carolina.

For you people who like toys or kids' things, a nice child's chair.

Still has the old buttermilk, woven cane seat out of split oak... just a wonderful example of what a child's chair in late 19th century looked like.

Another example of what was used from 1850 up to the 1900s... this is called a document box, or at least, that's what I call it.

I think most people would.

It's got the original paint, some of it gone... beautiful patina.

Here again, made from heart pine.

Found in a home between Rock Hill and McConnell, two or three miles from Brattonsville.

Wonderful example of a document box that they used for all their papers, things that were valuable to them.

In our lifetime, we go through so fast, we sometimes don't stop and think about what happened a hundred years ago.

This is living history.

You can look at it and see what people were about in those periods by the things they used, how they used them, how they made them, what they were for.

It's a wonderful history lesson for all of us... old, for our kids, and for many, many years to come.

[birds chirping] (Angle) Fort Mill has three exceptional historic houses whose builders, owners, and residents were closely related, both to one another and also to the community's significant events.

This is the White Homestead.

Built in 1820 by William Elliott White, it is Georgian in style, constructed of brick brought from England.

On the morning of April 27, 1865, President Jefferson Davis and his Confederate Cabinet held their last "official" meeting on this lawn.

[birds twittering] For three days and nights, President Davis and his entourage had been guests of Colonel Andrew Baxter Springs of nearby Springfield.

Following the final meeting, Springs urged the Cabinet members to travel home by different routes for safety.

Springfield is one of the oldest houses in York County, begun in 1790 by John Springs, a businessman and state legislator.

This house has witnessed innumerable Springs' family gatherings.

One memorable occasion, in 1892, was a prewedding party held for 19-year-old Grace Allison White and her 31-year-old fiancé, Colonel Leroy Springs.

According to the newspaper, a chartered train brought 130 guests from Charlotte to, quote, "amuse themselves in true picnic style, "some by target shooting or playing whist, "while others tripped the fantastic toe "to the sweet strains of music by an Italian band.

"A rich dinner was served at six, "then promenading until eight.

"Then the dancing commenced.

"Another dinner was served at midnight, "followed by more dancing as the band played until two in the morning."

[birds chirping] The December 28th wedding held in this house was hailed by "The Charlotte Observer" as a joining of hands and hearts for the houses of York and Lancaster.

Grace's father, Captain Samuel Elliott White, was the founder of Fort Mill Manufacturing Company.

Her groom, Leroy Springs, was president of the Bank of Lancaster and, later, president of Lancaster Cotton Mills.

The White-Springs marriage became the foundation of one of South Carolina's most influential families.

The bride was gowned in white silk and lace with a court train and crescent of diamonds to hold her veil.

Ironically, the house that hosted her wedding had been built for another bride-to-be who never lived here.

Bob Thompson, vice president for public affairs, Springs Industries incorporated...

The house has an interesting origin.

John White and his brother Samuel were farmers in this area, and... John and his bride-to-be planned the house, which was completed in 1872.

Unfortunately, just before the wedding was to take place, the bride-to-be eloped with somebody else, and John was left with a house and no bride.

Undaunted, he began courting someone else, who turned out to be his sister-in-law's sister.

He married Addie Allison from Concord, and they moved into the house.

Tragically, shortly after they moved in, John became ill and died.

Samuel White, John's younger brother, and his wife Esther moved into the home to be with the young widow.

But after a year or two-- we're not quite sure of the time frame-- she married someone else and moved back to her hometown of Concord, North Carolina.

So Samuel and Esther White were here and continued to live here for a number of years, even though their home that we now know as the White Homestead was less than a mile away down the road here.

The house is important to Springs Industries for a couple of reasons...

I think two significant ones.

One is, Captain Samuel White and his wife and daughter were living here at the time that the first meeting was held of a group of people interested in investing in a cotton mill, which turned out to be the forerunner of Springs Industries, started right across the street.

I think the other significant aspect to the history of the house, as far as Springs Industries in concerned, is the fact that Grace Allison White, Samuel White's daughter, married Leroy Springs in the sitting room of this home, bringing those two families together, both families having been large landowners in this area.

Leroy Springs, being a farmer, a successful merchant, prosperous cotton broker of the time, brought real entrepreneurial skills to the building of what became a very large and complex manufacturing business.

The house has great historic value, certainly to the community of Fort Mill.

It has architectural value, uniqueness.

It's a national landmark, and we've devoted a lot of care and skill to trying to make it as relevant to its original period as we could, while also adding the modern conveniences and some of the simplicities that travelers expect.

We use it for customer visits.

We use it for friends of the company who stay here when they come to visit the business.

In 1987, the renovation of the house was probably two-thirds complete, and tragically, there was a fire, and it gutted the interior of the building but didn't damage the structure.

This house is supremely sound, structurally.

It's built like a fortress, so the structure was intact.

So we immediately started back in with the renovation and completed that in 1988.

When we redid the house, we made every effort to have the furnishings reflect the period.

In fact, there are several pieces in the house that were part of the original furnishings... the sideboard, the dining room table, a couple of the beds.

There's an interesting piece in there.

It's a secretary that had been Colonel Elliott Springs', which came off the Loretto, his private railcar, which sat on a siding down here for many years.

Because of the nature of the building, the restoration, and the fact that we have a small hotel, we don't open it to the public.

South Carolina ETV is getting a look at this house that most people don't get to see.

We made it available so we could share it with the public, at the same time saying, unfortunately, we can't do tours and weddings and those kinds of things because the house simply won't stand up to that kind of wear.

We're not in the museum business.

We're in the home furnishings business.

(Angle) Within view of the founder's house are seven bronze sculptures which symbolize seven values to which Springs Industries is committed... respect for history, planning for the future, creativity, service, personal and family well-being, education, and quality.

Following the death of Captain White's son-in-law and successor, Leroy Springs, in 1931, the family business entered a 28-year era overseen by the legendary man still referred to as "the Colonel."

Elliott White Springs was the only son of Grace Allison White and Leroy Springs.

After assuming the presidency of five small mills, he incorporated them all under the name Springs Cotton Mills, and through daring and brilliance, led it to become one of the world's most innovative textile manufacturers.

Colonel Springs, fifth-ranking American ace of World War I, was bold, adventurous, unpredictable, and highly imaginative.

During the 1940s, the Colonel launched an audacious, tongue-in-cheek, national advertising campaign that made the Springmaid brand name a household word and has since become a marketing classic.

In 1951, under Colonel Springs' direct guidance, the company built a new executive office building whose unusual architecture and furnishings attracted widespread attention.

An aviator at heart, the Colonel took inspiration from the dirigible "Hindenburg," on which he had crossed the Atlantic.

The Hindenburg's windows, set at a 45-degree angle to offer passengers a view below, are evoked here as a major design element.

Bob Thompson...

When Colonel Elliot Springs built the executive office building in '51-'52, it reflected his... curiosity about how things worked.

He was intensely interested in technology and machinery and gadgets, and so he was always the first to buy whatever came along to try it out.

What you'll see in this building, particularly in his office, even after we've done the renovation recently-- we've preserved his offic, and it was full of drapes that slide back and forth with a touch of a button, a great console with all sorts of buttons that work a television set and radio and had a microphone and sliding screens for movies and maps and a desk that converted into a table, where the table part comes out of the floor.

We are told, at least legend has it, that that was a compromise.

He really wanted to have that whole office move upstairs so he could confer with the engineering department.

I don't know whether that's true or not, but the desk still works.

We recently refurbished all the motors so it works a little more quietly than it did for a while.

There's a great reflection of his interest in technology.

He put that to use in his plants as well as his office.

(Angle) Colonel Springs was an inveterate experimenter whose interests included agriculture.

Back in the early 1930s, he tried his hand at raising quail and greenhouse tomatoes, among other things.

Eventually the crops that proved best suited and most profitable were strawberries and peaches.

Today Springs Farm provides fresh berries, peaches, and nectarines for York County and beyond.

Coming here to pick your own has been a local tradition for four generations.

[wind flaw noise] During the first week of October 1780, just before the Battle of Kings Mountain, Lord Cornwallis fled the hornet's nest around Charlotte and led his troops here to recover.

The British commander said that the countryside reminded him of an English park, quote, "with no underbrush but greensward as far as the eye can reach."

Two hundred years later, those unspoiled vistas are preserved in perpetuity and available to the people of South Carolina as the Anne Springs Close Greenway.

Covering 2,000 wooded acres on the north side of Fort Mill, the greenway includes eight ponds and 26 miles of trails for hiking and horseback riding.

There are campsites, and to the delight of children, five swinging bridges.

This generous gift from the eight children of H. William and Anne Springs Close honors their mother, a dedicated conservationist and ardent supporter of outdoor recreation.

The greenway also protects historic structures, two of which were moved here for their preservation.

This hand-hewn log house was originally built circa 1800, about three miles from here, by Jesse Faires.

His son John left this cabin to go fight in the War Between the States.

He died of disease in Virginia, leaving his wife Jane a young widow.

A few years later Jane married Josiah Coltharp, who had walked the Nation Ford Road home from the Confederate surrender at Appomattox.

After Jane's death, Josiah, by then a farmer and columnist for local newspapers, remarried, and in 1893, he moved his wife Betty and their two children into a new house built 100 yards from the log cabin.

That house is now the greenway's nature center with displays of animals and plants that can be found here.

[wind flaw noise] Thank you for coming with us to visit Fort Mill.

[wind flaw noise] South Carolina... smiling faces, beautiful places.

[wind flaw noise] ♪ Program captioned by: CompuScripts Captioning, Inc. 803.988.8438 ♪ (female singer) ♪ And here we live, ♪ ♪ within this land ♪ ♪ of mountains' edge and ocean's shore.

♪ ♪ A land of strength... a land of grace... ♪ ♪ of men and women gone before.

♪ ♪ So many smiling faces here, ♪ ♪ so many memories still to come.

♪ ♪ Beautiful places we hold dear ♪ ♪ in this our home.

♪ (choir joins) ♪ South Carolina, always near... ♪ ♪ and always hooommmme.... ♪♪♪ ♪