Origins to 1900: Rooting a Community
When a group of nine families of freed men and women organized Silver Hill United Methodist Church in 1870 and began to build their houses and lives around it, they may have been surprised to learn how fruitful their labors would become. Within ten years of their first services held in an arbor on a hill just north of the courthouse, more than 50 houses were up and accommodating dozens of families with skilled hands for carpentry, brickmaking, smithing, cooking, seamstress and domestic work. By 1900, the Northside neighborhood was booming with more than 250 houses, a public elementary school, three more churches, multiple businesses, and a hospital with 36 beds soon to come, and Silver Hill Methodist had just completed its second major addition that nearly doubled the sanctuary’s footprint.
The period called “Reconstruction” in South Carolina, from 1868 to 1876, was complex. It increased opportunities for freed people in
town, and the neighborhood began to spread its roots, but conservative white Democrats organized against the reforms legally and extralegally. Even so, some white landowners were willing to sell to freed people, who made good use of their chance.
Tobias Hartwell was brought to Spartanburg enslaved by Alfred Shipp, Wofford College’s
second president. Tobias, known as Tobe, and his wife, Catherine, were one of nine families who co-founded Silver Hill Methodist Church; they bought property just east of campus in 1874 and built one of the first houses in the area. Tobe went on to become a legendary figure in Spartanburg. He worked for 30 years as a greeter/security guard/courier at the city’s primary bank, First National, and was said to have been entrusted to deliver $1M of bank funds across town during his career. Mr. Hartwell was so well known and admired that city officials voted to name its first public housing complex after him, the Tobe Hartwell Courts.
Tobe and Catherine Hartwell and the other freed people looking to find work and settle in Spartanburg Town in the tumultuous and dangerous years after the war had to navigate white militias, white law enforcement, white planters, white elites, and white people generally, all of which could have spelled disaster at any point. But navigate through it all they did. Within four years after the war, Spartanburg town had its first Black church; two years later, several freed people owned property, were building houses and finding ways to educate their children. What the Hartwells and dozens of other Black families in Spartanburg town were able to accomplish in their first ten years of freedom, in a largely hostile country, defies measurement – and set the terms for generations to come.
The fundamental values shared by Silver Hill congregants included religious devotion, community involvement, and education. Perhaps the most well-known teacher in Spartanburg history is Mary H. Wright, born Mary Honor Farrow August 11, 1862 to Lot and Adaline Farrow. Mary was christened at Silver Hill and began teaching Sunday classes at nine years of age. She taught at Silver Hill for years before she pursued a formal education at Scotia Seminary in Concord, North Carolina, followed by Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina where she earned a degree in education. Between her marriage to William Corbet Wright in 1884 and her death in 1946, she raised ten children, founded Carrier Street School – later named Mary H. Wright Elementary School in her honor – organized several other schools or educational programs, and was awarded Life and Service Certificates from the Palmetto Teachers Association. Mrs. Wright taught wherever and whenever she could, often without pay, and sometimes in the country, which again, would have brought significant personal risk, all of which made a more than 60-year career in education. Several of her children taught as well, including Addie Bessear Wright McWhirter, who taught music education for 47 years.
Set up by Tobe Hartwell and Charles Bomar, the Lincoln School opened in October 1884 offering classes in grades 1-7 and serving 144 students. It was followed by two additional publicly funded graded schools for Black students. By February 1885, enrollment at the Lincoln School had grown to 336, which demonstrated need for another school. Northern Presbyterians funded the Rendall Academy, which was quickly absorbed into the public school system and moved, under the organization of Mrs. N.F. Young, to the basement of Silver Hill’s newly built second sanctuary.
The Dean Street School opened in 1891 to accommodate the large number of Black students seeking an education. The school holds an important place in Spartanburg’s history of education. It provided 71 years of continuous high quality educational service to thousands of students, which distinguished it as one of the many fine institutions sustained by Spartanburg’s Black community.
By 1900, the Black communities living north of Main Street were strong and growing. Neighborhoods with hundreds of houses, multiple churches and businesses, and a publicly funded elementary school, all reflected the goals and aspirations of the people who built lives for themselves, their families and their neighbors during Reconstruction and neighbors continued to help neighbors get through it.
Despite the widespread commitment to the value of public education in Spartanburg County, Black students did not see much of the windfall. Instead, they got white paternalism. White people fought against radical Republican notions of public education, which included the belief that an educated Black citizenry would help to produce an effective Black professional class.