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Author Judith T. Bainbridge holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Iowa and is a professor of English and the director of educational services at Furman University. She is the author of Academy and College: The History of the

History

If you are interested in the History of the West End, then there are two bodies of work that you might enjoy.  The first is entitled GREENVILLE'S WEST END: A Brief History, and the second is Greenville's West End.  Both were written by Judith T. Bainbridge, a local historian.
 
"Across the Reedy River from the thriving little village of Greenville Courthouse, trading roads stretched south to Hamburg and Augusta and west toward Pendleton, following paths cut by Cherokee Indians before the American Revolution.  The heavily-forested land west of the river was interrupted by small farms...along the Augusta Road and by a few widely-scattered homes along the road to Pendleton..."
 
"Most of the land, however, was owned by Vardry McBee of Lincolnton, North Carolina.  He purchased 11,000 acres around the Reedy River in 1815 from Lemuel Alston, who had laid out the original plat for "Pleasantburg" in 1797.  McBee almost immediately built a "very superior" flour mill on the west bank of the river and in 1829 added a corn mill and hired a miller, Elias Alexander, to manage the property..."
 
"Their location, on the shallowest ford of the Reedy, was convenient, too, for the drovers who led herds of cattle, swine, and turkeys from the mountains of North Carolina down the Stock Road (Buncombe Street) to Greenville's Main Street, and from there to the markets in Augusta.  The only crossing point over the Reedy River was the narrow footbridge above the ford, Greenville's only convenient access to the rest of the state.  When the mail came from Columbia once a week, the "post rider" paused at the crest of hill to announce the arrival of news from the outside world with a blast from his tin trumpet..."