http://greenvilleonline.com/news/2000/10/29/howtextilesbecameking.htm In South Carolina, only William Gregg at Graniteville had developed an extensive textile operation by the time of the Civil War. Few mills in Upstate In Greenville County, in the lightly populated Upstate, there were only a few attempts to start textile operations along the narrow streams and rocky shoals of the Enoree, Reedy and Saluda rivers. By 1860, three small mills had been established, none by Greenvillians: Rhode Islanders developed Lester's Factory, later Pelham Mill, on the Enoree, and William Bates and Co., nearby on Rocky Creek; and Reedy River Factory at Conestee was founded by North Carolinian Vardry McBee. They spun only coarse thread and fabric, but during the Civil War, when the Confederate government allowed only one day's production a week for civilian use, "rich and poor, high and low, came in splendid carriages, in sulkies, in wagons, and in carts to buy cloth."