The
government's
plan for the creation of 32 cantonments
resulted in intense competition and speculation in cities and towns
across the United States. Town politicians and merchants realized the
tremendous economic benefits
that winning a cantonment would bring, and enthusiastically lobbied the
government to build one within their community. Spartanburg,
South
Carolina,
was among the many small cities competing for a cantonment. Located in the South Carolina Piedmont, Spartanburg
was a textile center of approximately 20,000 inhabitants in 1917.1 Numerous textile mills brought the city a
relatively high level of prosperity by South
Carolina
standards. Wofford and Converse colleges
were both located in Spartanburg,
and helped to give the community a reputation for higher education.2 The Cleveland Hotel, newly built in 1917,
offered Spartanburg's
visitors clean and
modern accommodations.3 Despite
the veneer of prosperity, Spartanburg
also suffered from many of the problems that plagued the American South
during
the early twentieth century, however. Race
laws were rigidly enforced, and poverty reigned
throughout much of
the county. This was especially true in
the county's many mill villages and rural countryside.
Rural Spartanburg
was characterized by poor white tenant farmers and African American
sharecroppers. Cotton was still king,
and countless acres of Spartanburg
land was planted with the snow white crop each year.
Intensive cotton planting and the county's
hilly location resulted in serious erosion problems.
At the beginning of the twentieth century,
rural Spartanburg was a
largely
treeless sea of cotton and red Carolina Piedmont clay.4
Spartanburg's
hilly location was not an entirely negative feature, however. The county's elevation offered the blessing
of fast moving streams that could be harnessed for electrical power. This helped give birth to Spartanburg's
textile industry during the latter part of the nineteenth century. By 1917, Spartanburg
County was
dotted with numerous
textile mills and their supporting villages. Mill
owners constituted the elite of Spartanburg
society. Life for the average mill
worker was far from ideal, however. Hours
were long, the work grueling, and the pay
minuscule. Mill village houses were often
small ramshackle
structures that lacked running water. Many
of those employed in Spartanburg's
textile industry were originally from the mountains of North
Carolina and Tennessee. These people viewed life in the mills as a
step up from the grinding poverty that existed in the mountains. Despite the difficulty of life in the textile
industry, a mill worker was guaranteed pay and housing as long as they
could
work. Mill villages also provided a
strong sense of community, and games played between different mill
baseball
teams became important sources of entertainment. Still,
endemic poverty remained a fact of
life in Spartanburg's mill
communities.5
Spartanburg
was determined to win one of the 32 newly commissioned training
cantonments. Billed as the "City of Success"
by
local officials, Spartanburg
had a number of advantages over other communities.6 The fact that Spartanburg
was located in the Deep South made it ideally
suited to
year round training. Spartanburg's
mild climate also made the community a very desirable location for one
of the
new National Guard cantonments. The
government specified that National Guardsmen were to be cheaply housed
in large
pyramidal tents, not barracks. This
necessitated that the National Guard cantonments be located in climates
with
mild winters. Of the 16 National Guard
Cantonments commissioned by the government, 12 were built in the South. Spartanburg
County's rural
nature ensured that
plenty of land would be available for a camp and military
maneuvers. A number of Spartanburg's
prominent citizens lobbied the government to construct a camp on the
city's
outskirts. These included Spartanburg's
Mayor, John F. Floyd; President of the Spartanburg Chamber of Commerce,
Ben
Hill Brown; Chairman of Spartanburg's Cantonment Committee, John B.
Cleveland;
and the editor of the Spartanburg Herald
newspaper, Charles O. Hearon. The Spartanburg
community raised a $200,000 guarantor's fund to further attract
government
interest. Congressman and Spartanburg
resident Sam J. Nichols helped support the city's campaign in Washington
D.C.
7 Reverend W.H.K. Pendleton, rector of Spartanburg's
Episcopal Church of the Advent, provided the city with an important
link to
Secretary of War Newton D. Baker. Before
assuming his position of the Church of the Advent, Reverend Pendleton
had
taught Baker at Episcopal High School in Virginia. This gave Spartanburg
an important edge in its competition for a camp.8
General
Leonard Wood, commander of the Army's
Eastern Division, was the man Spartanburg
most needed to impress. On May 29, it
was disclosed that the inspectors sent to Spartanburg
by General Wood had issued a positive report. Only
on June 21, however, did an excited Spartanburg
receive definite assurance that it would receive a camp.
On this date, General Leonard Wood personally
inspected Spartanburg and
ensured
the city of its success. Shortly after
General Wood's visit, the War Department officially announced that Spartanburg
had won one of the 32 new camps.9
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