| Excerpts from “Traditions and History of Anderson County”, by Louise Ayer Vandiver, First Printing was in the year 1928 In 1828, Pendleton District was replaced by Anderson and Pickens District. The two districts being named after two distinguished Rev. soldiers, Colonel Robert Anderson and General Andrew Pickens. Distance was needed between the town of Pendleton and the new district of Anderson and these men were selected to select a site for the new town of Anderson. They were James Harrison, Robert Norris, M. Gambrell, John C. Griffin & William Sherard. “The first owners of lots in the village of Anderson were J.P. Benson, Mr. McGill, Mr. Lipscomb, Samuel Maverick, K. Prince, Elias Earle, S. McQueen, J. Gray, D. Sloan, Micajah Webb, William Magee, W.S. Acker, Andrew McFall, J. Gilmore, Daniel Brown, J. Brown, Matthew Gambrell, Robert Wilson, J.N. Whitner, Christopher Orr, Mr. Mattison, G.E.W. Foster, D.H. Cochran, J. Rosamund, J. Thompson, R.F. Black, L. Barr, N. McCalister, W. Michiel, B. Durham, L. Goode, B. Duncan, D. Norris, J. Haney and J. Masters.” Land was sold at auction, Matthew Gambrell, selling for the state. Dr. Ben Brown, of Williamston, was the first child born in the town of Anderson, son of Daniel & Rhoda Acker Brown Anderson’s first furniture dealer was Ezekiel George. A few years later Ezekiel George was in need of an assistant, George Frederick Tolly, a Greenville resident. George Frederick Tolly was born in Prussia, November 7, 1835. In 1850 George and his parents emigrated to America. George Tolly married Miss Mary Jane George, daughter of Ezekiel & Betty Poole George, on May 24, 1859. George Tolly succeeded the furniture business of his father-in-law and has grown to be the largest in the state at one time, these stores as we know it as Tolly’s Furniture. |
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