Simpsonville had its early beginnings as a stage stop operated by Thomas Goldsmith in 1820’s. It was on the Old Stage Road a distance of twelve miles down south from the Greenville Court House. In 1836, Silas Gilbert opened one of the first businesses in the area. It was a large merchandising operation at the crossroads. Two years later a man named Peter Simpson arrived and put up a blacksmith shop next to Gilbert. In that very same year 1838, Simpson arrived and the place was assigned as a post office entitled O Plain in the house of Jarrett Cook, a neighbor.
The traffic on Stage Road was not busy until the 1850’s when the budding village went into a state of non progress during the Civil War and Reconstruction. During the Reconstruction period, those who were leaving their respective churches of mixed congregations, moved to a better location for their worship. This is when the Cedar Grove Baptist Church became the first church organized with city limits in 1870.
In 1885, Simpsonville High School was built and Sydney J. Wilson and North Carolina native, surveyed the streets and lots to make way for the future town to be built and for the new railroad track. Today, the streets and lots remain in their original location. The place was known as Plain and Simpsonville for some time but the post office was officially changed to Simpsonville in the same year.
The year 1908 is when the Woodside brothers constructed the Woodside Cotton Mill and remained the largest employer until World War II. In 1953, a major water line from Greenville was laid and built. This is for the development of both industry and residential growth for the next 25 years. In 1956, Highway 276 was widened and this eventually became the mid portion of the I-385 and from this date on the Simpsonville’s industry and housing rocketed skyward.
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