GoWoodruffWoodruff, SC
Woodruff, SC · At a glance

Woodruff icons

The mascot, the colors, where the name came from, the town’s symbols and the places people point to when they say “that’s Woodruff.” Every fact links to where we found it, and where the record is silent, we say so.

Quick answers

The name

How a crossroads became “Woodruff”

Before it had one name, this place had several. A study of South Carolina place names lists The Mill, Cross Roads and Woodruff Tavern as earlier names for the settlement.

The Woodruff family was here early. In 1787 Joseph Woodruff, his brothers and other relatives appear as members and deacons in the first minutes of the Church of Christ at Jamey’s Creek, and by about 1789 Joseph had bought two hundred acres on the creek, including the ground the town stands on. By 1825 two things marked the crossroads: Woodruff’s Tavern, and a post office named for its postmaster, Thomas Woodruff, Joseph’s son. The place names study adds that Thomas ran the stagecoach stop.

Thomas wanted the community to become a real town. He died before it did, and his two sons carried the idea through. The town was chartered in 1874.

  • 1787Woodruffs in the first church minutes
  • 1825Woodruff post office and tavern
  • 1874Town chartered

Sources differ on the year: the place names study gives 1876, while the South Carolina Encyclopedia, the SC Picture Project and the city’s own 150th birthday in 2024 all point to 1874. We use 1874.

The full story on our History page →

Sources: rootsandrecall.com ↗ · scencyclopedia.org ↗ · scpictureproject.org ↗ · thewoodrufftimes.com ↗

Mascot and colors

The Wolverines, in maroon and gold

For a lot of people in the Upstate, Woodruff means Wolverines. The Wolverine is the mascot of Woodruff High School, the high school of Spartanburg County School District 4, and Wolverines is the name its teams play under.

The school’s colors are maroon and gold, the same pair this site borrows for its own look.

The name became famous statewide in the postwar decades. Under coach W. L. “Willie” Varner, the Wolverines won ten state football championships, which the South Carolina Encyclopedia calls the town’s greatest recognition.

  • Maroon
  • Gold

GoWoodruff doesn’t cover today’s student athletes, so this is the program’s history, not current scores. The swatches below are close shades for illustration; the school doesn’t publish exact color codes.

The Varner years →

Sources: scencyclopedia.org ↗ · scpictureproject.org ↗ · whs.spartanburg4.org ↗ · wistv.com ↗ · en.wikipedia.org ↗

Symbols and sayings

“Time Well Spent” and a small city with a big heart

The City of Woodruff introduces itself with three words. Its official website calls Woodruff the place “Where Time is Well Spent,” and its guide to things to do is titled simply “Time Well Spent.”

In 2020 the Woodruff Area Council started a campaign called “Small City, Big Heart.” Co-chair Leslie Cash came up with the idea after working with the town’s many nonprofits and small businesses. Its logo, produced by Arrowhead Design Co., shows the outline of South Carolina with a heart placed where Woodruff sits.

On June 28, 2024 the city marked its 150th birthday by burying a time capsule, with live music and fireworks, for the next generation to open.

A town seal or flag? We looked and couldn’t find a published description of a City of Woodruff seal or an official city flag. Flags of the World noted a 2023 photo that might show a city flag, or might just be a printed logo, and couldn’t confirm it. So we don’t show one here, and we don’t reproduce the city’s or the school’s logos. If the city publishes its seal, we’ll add it with a link.

Sources: cityofwoodruff.com ↗ · cityofwoodruff.com ↗ · thewoodrufftimes.com ↗ · thewoodrufftimes.com ↗ · crwflags.com ↗

Downtown

The clock on Main Street

Downtown has its own landmark you can set your watch by: the town clock on Main Street, which the SC Picture Project singles out as part of the charm of the merchant district.

In 2001 a $1.1 million grant-funded project replaced the downtown sidewalks, added decorative lighting and buried the overhead wires, which is why Main Street looks the way it does today.

Downtown Woodruff →

Sources: scpictureproject.org ↗ · scencyclopedia.org ↗

Roads and rails

Two old roads, then the railroad

Woodruff exists because two roads met here: the Buncombe Road, which ran from Charleston to the mountains, and the Georgia Road. Today the same junction is where S.C. Highway 101 meets State Road 50.

The railroad arrived in 1885. Woodruff was the end of the line, and its station had a turntable to send trains back toward Augusta, Georgia. By 1886, a year after the trains came, an estimated 1,600 people lived here, up from about 150 when the town was chartered.

A charter, then the railroad →

Sources: scencyclopedia.org ↗

Water

Where the Tyger River begins

Three streams start in Spartanburg County, the North, Middle and South Tyger, and they join to form the Tyger River near Woodruff. From there it runs through Union County, including twenty-four miles through Sumter National Forest, to the Broad River.

Nobody is sure how it got its name. One story credits a French trader named Tygert who passed through around 1755; another tells of a wild cat and a bear that fought on its banks, with the cat winning. The Cherokee called it Amoyescheck.

Sources: scencyclopedia.org ↗

Before the factories

Peach country

Until World War II, the one big alternative to textile work around Woodruff was fruit. More than 200,000 peach trees grew within ten miles of town.

Cotton oil, cotton mills and peaches →

Sources: scencyclopedia.org ↗

Landmarks

Places that say “Woodruff”

Traditions

A year in Woodruff

What the city itself invites everyone to, in its own “Time Well Spent” guide. For dates, check this week’s events.

  1. SummerConcert series in McKinney Park, most often on Friday nights
  2. DowntownA Taste of Woodruff, a stroll through the shops and restaurants
  3. July 4Fireworks and a concert
  4. SpringThe Easter Extravaganza for kids
  5. OctoberHalloween on Main
  6. ChristmasTree lighting, the Christmas Stroll, carriage rides and the Christmas parade

Sources: cityofwoodruff.com ↗ · city home page ↗

What we couldn’t verify

People asked about these, and we looked. Until there’s a record we can link, they stay off the page.

  • A design or description of an official City of Woodruff seal.
  • Official colors for the City of Woodruff (the maroon and gold above are the high school’s).
  • Any town mascot other than the high school’s Wolverine.
  • An official city flag (one 2023 photo may show one; it has not been confirmed).

Have a record? A city document, an old program, a newspaper page. Tell the dev team with the button on any page, or lend a hand with local history.

This page started as a neighbor’s suggestion on the public request log.

All sources

Facts checked . Wikipedia is listed only as a pointer to the records it cites.

  1. South Carolina Encyclopedia: “Woodruff” (Steve Richardson, USC Institute for Southern Studies)
  2. South Carolina Encyclopedia: “Tyger River” (Susan Giaimo Hiott)
  3. South Carolina Picture Project: Woodruff
  4. Roots & Recall: “Woodruff Cotton Mill and Community”, quoting C. H. Neuffer, Names in South Carolina (USC Dept. of English)
  5. City of Woodruff: official website (“Where Time is Well Spent”)
  6. City of Woodruff: “Time Well Spent” (Things to Do)
  7. The Woodruff Times: “Woodruff Area Council Launches New Marketing Campaign” (Nicole Collins, Nov. 13, 2020)
  8. The Woodruff Times: “Woodruff Unites: A Community Celebration for 150 Years” (Tracy Sanders, July 18, 2024)
  9. Woodruff High School: official site (Spartanburg County School District 4)
  10. WIS-TV: “South Carolina High School Teams” (team names and colors list, 2007)
  11. Wikipedia: Woodruff High School (South Carolina), a pointer to the sources above
  12. Flags of the World: “Woodruff, South Carolina (U.S.)” (Masao Okazaki, 2023)
  13. SC Dept. of Archives & History: National Register: Woodruff High School
  14. SC Dept. of Archives & History: National Register: First Presbyterian Church of Woodruff
  15. Spartanburg County Historical Association: “The Price House”
  16. Historical Marker Database: “First Baptist Church” (SC marker 42-41, 2022)
  17. Triple Tree Aerodrome: “Our Founder: Pat Hartness”
  18. BMW Group press release: groundbreaking at Plant Woodruff (June 27, 2023)
  19. Wikimedia Commons: “Woodruff High School.jpg” (Bill Fitzpatrick, 2012, CC BY-SA 3.0)
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