The South Carolina Peach Festival Association Dedication, 1963 · Greer Heritage Museum collection

Title

The South Carolina Peach Festival Association Dedication, 1963

Accession Number

2026.36.15

Accession Date

15 September 2026

Accession Creator

Sophie Pendergraft

Depositor

Agnes Dobson Bruce

Description

Copy of South Carolina Peach Festival Association Dedication to R.A. Dobson and I.B. Dobson

Date

1962

Storage Location

Box 80, Folder 1

Text

The South Carolina Peach Festival Association
Dedicates
The 1963 Festival
to the memory of

R.A. DOBSON
1882 to 1945

and

I.B. DOBSON
1880 to 1954

Pioneer peach growers
Greer, S.C.
For outstanding services
To the
Peach industry
And their community

Robert Austin Dobson, born November 28, 1882 in Spartanburg County 3 miles from Greer. He attended school at Maple Swamp, a one room school nearby. He met Estelline Major at a fourth of July celebration in Greer in 1911. They married in 1912. They had four sons and one daughter. All of the children are community leaders in the Greer area. Lawrence, Leonard, Roy, Clyde and Mrs. David S. (Corinne) Byrnside, Jr. All live within one mile of the home place. Mr. Dobson was a member of the Board of Stewards of the Memorial Methodist Church. He was a director of the bank of Greer for several years prior to his death in 1945.

Ishan Benjamin (Uncle Benny) Dobson was born November 7, 1880. His schooling was the same as his brother, R.A. He was a member of the Board of Stewards of Wood’s Chapel Methodist Church. He took an active part in the building program of the church and other community affairs. He was a Director of the Bank of Greer for several years prior to his death in 1954.

The Dobson brothers worked together in most all of their activities and were very close to each other. They felt the need for an additional farm product other than cotton of which they were leaders in this area. They decided to try peaches in 1925 and had a first planting of 20 acres of Elberta peaches. Plantings were made at intervals until 75 acres of Elbertas were bearing. When they felt they were overloaded with Elbertas they planted Golden East, Triogems, Beauty Gems and Dixie Reds until they had a large production of all type marketable peaches. Before the Elbertas got into heavier production, they used trucks to carry the peaches to the villages encircling Greenville. Leonard and Lawrence (the older boys) got their first lesson in salesmanship one on each side of the street, selling peaches. J.B. Robinson, a local grower and packer, was the first orchard foreman.

Many men and women in Greer today got their first job at the Dobson packing shed working during school vacation with the peaches. The first packing was done with home made rigs. As the need for more modern grading and packing machines developed they added automatic washers, fillers, and steri-coolers. The packing today is done with the most modern and fastest methods available and assures a Greer peach in all corners of the U.S.