1931+-+1935

An everyday history of Upstate South Carolina from 1931 - 1935

Members of legislature have learned that driving an automobile under the influence of liquor does not constitute cause for cancellation of the new state drivers. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gEQtAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ZJ4FAAAAIBAJ&pg=1936,3842243&dq=central+south+carolina&hl=en
 * January 1931**

Auto Death toll shrinks in some states. South Carolina succeeds in cutting fatalities in recent months. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VIcsAAAAIBAJ&sjid=o8oEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3631,3994437&dq=central+south+carolina&hl=en **
 * December 1931

Spartanburg's Arcadia Textile Mill win thier Mid-County League Baseball Championship. They defeat many lower and upper state baseball teams. Spartanburg County 975.729 R115. pg.154 1931 R.V
 * 1931**

Lanford opens his cotton stands in the Woodruff area. Spartanburg County 975.729 R115. pg.156 1931
 * 1931**

Amelia Earhardt lands at Spartanburg's Airport and is greeted by Major Ben Hill Brown. Seeing Spartanburg 975.729. pg. 320
 * 1931**

In the State of South Carolina forty one percent of convictions in the South Carolina courts were due to breaking laws on prohibition. Attorney General John M. Daniel reports that 2,953 people were convicted in the state courts this year alone for prohibition law violations. Outside of prohibition 137 people were convicted throughout the entire state for manslaughter this year as well.
 * February 1931**

Seven are currently dead in Greenville from drinking an unknown liquid. The total bodies count continues to grow throughout the month of March. Coroner Joe Wooten is investigating all deaths which have occurred. Coroner will send stomachs from some of the bodies to Clemson College for chemical analysis along with liquids found at the scene. However it is believed that all seven victims have died from drinking poisoned whiskey.
 * March 1931**

Frank Pridmore Greenville county supervisor goes on trial before Governor Blackwood for removal of office. Pridmore is on trial for the murder of Highway engineer Nick Sanders. All Charges are the murder of Nick Sanders, habitual drunkenness and abuse of power, nepotism in the employment of his two sons and nephews, Failure to protect the county, failure to corporate with county officials and use of his position in office to influence his defense against the murder charge. F. Pridmore will be removed from office by July of 1931.
 * April 1931**

University of South Carolina requests $433,180 dollars for maintenance of its plant with its enlarged student body. Stating that the University is totally dependent on legislative funds: purposing that the brick smoke stacks need to be replaced for metal ones and that storage and paved sidewalks are needed due to the enlarged student body. As well funds are needed for the removal of termites.
 * November 1931**

Tornado kills 34 more in the South; Twenty- two lose lives in Alabama-- Many of 300 injured may not survive. 12 die in South Carolina. Red cross rushes supplies to Homeless-- 17- fatalities in twisters since mid-march .** http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30D14FE3E5C16738DDDAF0894DD405B838FF1D3
 * May 1932

The first class letter goes from 2 to 3 cents due to the great economic uncertainty. Hits Pickens County first. It Happened In Pickens County 975.723 M16. pg. 173
 * 1932**

Local Woodruff man plants 20 kudzu plants in his gully and it later quickly grows and covers most of the county. Kudzu is then despised by people who have houses near by the area. Seeing Spartanburg 975.729. pg.152
 * 1932**

Horton's Meat Market on Main Street in Central opens. Serving the city ham and beef from a refrigerated display case. Pickens County 975.723. pg.39
 * 1932**

South Carolina automobile tags were stamped " The Iodine State" due to the deal about Iodine content in South Carolina vegetables. It Happened In Picken County 975.723 M16. pg. 182
 * 1932**

The Civilian Conservation Corps built Table Rock State Park that consist of over 2,000 acres of land. Picken County 975.723. pg. 77 1933
 * 1933**

President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared a bank holiday for the Central National Bank located in Spartanburg. Spartanburg County 975.729 R115. pg. 149
 * 1933**

All 6 banks in Spartanburg closed down and poverty enveloped due to the depression the nation was undergoing. Seeing Spartanburg 975.729. pg. 204
 * 1933**

The Soil Erosion Service of the United States Department of Interior chose Spartanburg County for its pilot erosion prevention project. Seeing Spartanburg 975.729. pg. 206
 * 1933**

Congress established the Civilian Conservation Corps to provide jobs for the unemployed in the city of Spartanburg. Workers left thier homes and lived in CCC barracks. Seeing Spartanburg 975.729. pg. 312
 * 1933**


 * 1933**

//Way Open for Beer// The South Carolina passed a beer legalizing bill and sent it t the senate. 22 other states joind South Carolina, including maine. The return of the legaldistributionof beer was to happen on the stroke of midnight on Aril 6, 1933. Without the passing of the bill, the sell of beer would remain uncontrolled and run rampant. Legalizing ber was an early stage of the procesing in abolishing the 18th amendment. [|Source]
 * March 30**

//Beer Shortage// As soon as it came out, it whent out. Vendors were just unprepred for the beer frenzy which took place as soonas beer was legally able to be sold to the public. Governonr Ibra C. Blackwood signed a bill that declared 3.2 per cent beer and wine became a "non-alcoholic" beverages. The new law took effect immediately. [|Source]
 * April 11**

//Take it to the ballot!// South Carolina to ballot on the 18th amendment repeal issue. Though beer and wine are sold, many accross the country, including many in South Carolina, were attempting to repeal the amendment all together. If successful then all states would be able o not only seel bee and wine, but sprits as well. The slogan for the "drys" was, "Make South Carolina Different". [|Source]
 * November 5**

//Beer and Wine Only// South Carolina is the first in the country to reject the 21st amendment. The state officially dlared itself "dry" at a state convention in which the assembly voted unanimously on the eve of the natioal repeal of the 18th amendment.The assemblage, compare by one speaker, to the secession convention of 1860 in which South Caroina withdrew from the Union. The state adopted an anti-repeal resolution offered by former Governonr Richards. [|Source]
 * December 1**


 * 1934

January 14** //Kidnaper Killer Sentenced to Death// Robert Wiles, the state's first kidaper-killer was sentenced to death. Tree weeks prior,Wiles beat todeath a 15 year old boy. Judge Hayne Rice decreed the 49-year old murderer to die inthe electric chair on March 12. After trwing out the sanity plea from the defense, the jury deliberated and found Wiles guilty of murdering the boy, Hubbard Harris, Jr. Wiles admitted on the witness stand that he lured Harris from his home,on the child's birthday,twodas before Christmas. He planned to demand $1000 ransom, but instead he hammered the boy to death with an iron bar, in a desrted farm hos, after his plot did not work-out. [|Source]

//Bank Robers Arrested// Hugh White, South Carolina bank clerk; 2 detectives, and a member of the Greenville Couny Grand Jury, were arrested on charges growing out of the $50,000 bank hold up, four days prior. Others name in the warrants were detectives of the Grenville city police department. [|Source]
 * March 10**

//Textile Strike// About 45,000 of the state's 80,000 textile workers actively participated in the United textile Workers strike. For a time, these new union members, in response to New Deal legislation, stood up for their rights and became a force to be reckoned with in the South. Then management moved in and crushed the strike. The 1934 textile strike failed to bring the transformation in work conditions and social relations that the strikers had hoped to win and was widely considered a devastating defeat for Labor. Seven workers were shot and killed by special deputies at Chiquola Mills at Honea Path. Governorn Blackwood, after the report of the deaths said he was, "seriously considering declaring certain areas in a state of insurrection." The strike's ultimate failure and the trade union's defeat left the Souteastern United States an unorganized and anti-union region for the next 50 years, and many were so intimidated that "union" became a dirty word in Southern communities. [|Source]
 * Spetember 7**

//South Carolina ain't so dry// A new brand of whiskey was introduced to Florida from dry South Carolina, of all places. The label of the bottle said,"Original RotGut Corn Whiskey, the breath of a nation." It is composed of malt, branch water and Red Dog, according to the whiskey label. Avers the gentleman from South Carolina produced it,"bottled in the barn and aged in the woods of south Carolina. Source
 * October 14**


 * 1935

February 7** //Brown to Manufacture Alcohol// Marvin M. Brown from Spartanburg county, introduced a bill legalizing the manufacture of liquor in South Carolina, regardless of the fate of the Blatt-Brown liquor bill, which he is a co-author of. Brown is quoted saying,"We could make just as good liquor in South Carolina as anywhere else, so why buy it elsewhere?" The spartan representative declared that such a law would help the peach growers of the state and industry in general. [|Source]

//Nature face-lift// Mother earth needs to primp up a bit hereabouts, so the federal government is moving a young forest across the state of South Carolina to help lift her face and take out a few wrinkles. When the operation is completed, some of the south's best farm lands will have been saved from erosion and rejuvinated for productivity. In the course of rejuvination, more than a million pine seedlings have been transplanted from a government nursery at Georgetown, S.C., 200 miles away. 2 million young trees have been sent out in an effort to utilize the poorer farms lands and check the wearing away of the soil. [|Source]
 * May 2**

//South Carolina Becomes Wet// With the end of the national prohibition, South Carolina passed an alcoholic beverage control to regulate the sale of liquor. The law became effective at midnight with the last minute signing by Governonr Johnston. The General Assembly passed the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law to regulate the sale of alcohol in the state following the end of national prohibition. The Alcoholic Beverage Control Law is as follows and its definitions are:
 * May 14**

Title 61 - Alcohol and Alcoholic Beverages CHAPTER 6.ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONTROL ACTARTICLE 1.GENERAL PROVISIONS SECTION Name. This chapter is known and may be cited as "The Alcoholic Beverage Control Act" (ABC Act). SECTION Definitions. As used in the ABC Act, unless the context clearly requires otherwise:

(1)(a) "Alcoholic liquors" or "alcoholic beverages" means any spirituous malt, vinous, fermented, brewed (whether lager or rice beer), or other liquors or a compound or mixture of them by whatever name called or known which contains alcohol and is used as a beverage, but does not include: (i) wine when manufactured or made for home consumption and which is not sold by the maker of the wine or by another person; or (ii) a beverage declared by statute to be nonalcoholic or nonintoxicating. (b) "Alcoholic liquor by the drink" or " alcoholic beverage by the drink" means a drink poured from a container of alcoholic liquor, without regard to the size of the container for consumption on the premises of a business licensed pursuant to Article 5 of this chapter.

(2) "Bona fide engaged primarily and substantially in the preparation and serving of meals" means a business that provides facilities for seating not fewer than forty persons simultaneously at tables for the service of meals and that: (a) is equipped with a kitchen that is utilized for the cooking, preparation, and serving of meals upon customer request at normal meal times; (b) has readily available to its guests and patrons either menus with the listings of various meals offered for service or a listing of available meals and foods, posted in a conspicuous place readily discernible by the guest or patrons; and (c) prepares for service to customers, upon the demand of the customer, hot meals at least once each day the business establishment chooses to be open.

(3) "Manufacturer" means a person operating a plant or place of business in this State for distilling, rectifying, brewing, fermenting, blending, or bottling alcoholic liquors.

(4) "Furnishing lodging" means those businesses which rent accommodations for lodging to the public on a regular basis consisting of not less than twenty rooms.

(5) "Minibottle" means a sealed container of fifty milliliters or less of alcoholic liquor.

(6) "Nonprofit organization" means an organization not open to the general public, but with a limited membership and established for social, benevolent, patriotic, recreational, or fraternal purposes.

(7) "Producer", as used in the ABC Act, means a manufacturer, distiller, rectifier, blender, or bottler of alcoholic liquors and includes an importer of alcoholic liquors engaged in importing alcoholic liquors into the United States.

(8) "Producer representative" means a person who is a citizen of this State, who maintains his principal place of abode in this State, and who is registered with the department pursuant to Article 7 of this chapter as the South Carolina representative of a registered producer.

(9) "Registered producer" means a producer who is registered with the department pursuant to Article 7 of this chapter.

(10) "Retail dealer" means a holder of a license issued under the provisions of Article 3 of this chapter, other than a manufacturer or wholesaler.

(11) "Wholesaler" means a person who purchases, acquires, or imports from outside this State or who purchases or acquires from a manufacturer in the State alcoholic liquors for resale. For the complete law, visit:[] [|Source] ====