Business Leaders

Tan Anderson Automobile

John Gary Anderson

John Gary Anderson was the founder of the Anderson Motor Company in Rock Hill, SC, which made automobiles from 1916 to 1926.

Mercer Silas Bailey wearing a dark suit

Mercer Silas Bailey

 M.S. Bailey was a successful businessman in Clinton, SC, who owned two cotton mills and was active in banking and other local businesses.

Color photograph of Crandall Bowles

Crandall Close Bowles

Bowles is the fifth generation to run Springs Industries and, as CEO, is regularly ranked among the top women executives in the country.

Photograph of W. Melvin Brown, Jr.

W. Melvin Brown, Jr.

Manufacturer

David Coker wearing a light suit and dark tie.

David Robert Coker

David Robert Coker was a Hartsville, SC businessman and philanthropist who founded the “Coker’s Pedigreed Seed Catalogue” in 1914.

Black and white photograph of James Coker

James Lide Coker

Businessman, entrepreneur, philanthropist born in Darlington, SC. Coker was educated at the Citadel and Harvard where he studied to better prepare himself for managing agricultural property.

Black and white photograph of Charles Daniel

Charles Ezra Daniel

Charles Ezra Daniel was a successful businessman and political figure in South Carolina.

A woman sitting at a desk writing something in a book.

Eugenia Duke

Eugenia Duke created Duke's Mayonnaise

Stephen Elliott

Stephen Elliott

Stephen Elliott was a legislator, banker, and botanist. He is best known for his work, A Sketch of the Botany of South Carolina and Georgia. The plant genus Elliottia is named after him.

Color photograph of Etu Evans

Etu Evans

Shoe and accessory designer, interior design consultant, philanthropist.

William Gregg

William Gregg

William Gregg was the founder of the Graniteville Company, an early cotton mill in Aiken County.

Esau Jenkins with bus used to provide students with transportation

Esau Jenkins

Esau Jenkins was a South Carolina African American Human Rights leader, businessman, local preacher, and community organizer.

Roger Milliken

Roger Milliken

Roger Milliken was a Spartanburg Textile magnet, Businessman, and political activist.

Darla Moore wearing a blue pinstripe suit

Darla Moore

Darla Dee Moore is an investor and philanthropist. 

James C. Self wearing wire glasses.

James C. Self

James C. Self owned several textile mills in Greenwood, SC.

Elliott White Springs standing in front of his plane surrounded by other people.

Elliott White Springs

Elliott White Springs was a South Carolina businessman and an American flying ace of World War I.