Emerald City’s name comes from summer home, or does it?
Eva Greer doesn’t know exactly where Greenwood got its name, but she has a theory.Greenwood’s named after, well, the trees.“The area itself is full of trees and is very green,” Greer said.Timothy Rushton has no idea where the name came from.“I just know enough to know I live in Greenwood,” he said.Rushton’s in the majority of people not knowing about Greenwood’s origin.The reason behind the name “Greenwood” is a mystery to most people, except to Ann Herd Bowen and the readers of her book, “Greenwood County: A History,” published in 1992.Greenwood comes from the name of a log house built in 1823 and owned by John McGehee Jr., a lawyer from Cambridge, now Ninety Six.McGehee used the house as a summer home for him and wife Charlotte. They named the summer home “Green Wood.” A village grew around the house and eventually took on the name, even when the post office was briefly named Woodville in 1837.“I think when people start using it as Greenwood, it just kind of catches hold,” Bowen said. Greenwood became the town’s official name in 1850. The former site of the cabin lies on East Cambridge Street between Elm Court and the former Brewer Middle School.Boykin Curry thinks that either the summer home or the lush greenery could be answers to the Greenwood name riddle despite the evidence. Curry helped Bowen research Greenwood County’s history for the book. Both theory’s seem to make sense, he said.Still another theory involves “The Wizard of Oz,” specifically, the reason behind Greenwood’s nickname Emerald City.Ray Crenshaw remembers when he was a kid in 1954 that many businesses in the phone book started with Emerald City.Crenshaw thinks “The Wizard of Oz” movie from 1939 or the original book from 1900 could have inspired Greenwood’s nickname.He knows a few people who shared the same opinion.Hack Bartley thinks it’s odd how towns get their names, including Greenwood. For example, Due West got its name from being five miles due west of Donalds.Greenwood’s also a popular name for towns across North America.Check the Internet search engine Google and you’ll find many references to Greenwood.There are at least five cities in the United States that share the name Greenwood. Indiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Maine and Minnesota all have a Greenwood.Colorodo has a Greenwood, too, although it’s Greenwood Village. New York also has a city called Greenwood Lake.Seattle has a neighborhood called Greenwood.Greenwood, British Columbia has the honor of being the smallest incorporated town in Canada. Greenwood, Wis. got its name from the incorporation of two towns: Greenland and Land of the Big Woods.A lot of cities in the United States also use the word “Green” in their titles.Green Bay, Wis., home of the Green Bay Packers National Football League team, is the most famous example.Green River, Wyo. is another.There are two towns called Bowling Green: one in Ohio and another in Kentucky.One town in Ohio is just called Green.No matter how many different variations of Greenwood exist in the United States, there’s only one Greenwood in South Carolina.“I just feel sorry for everybody who doesn’t live here,” Curry said.
