Richard Pearis

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Richard Pearis was born in Ireland in 1725. In addition to being a British Captain in the Revolutionary War, he was Greenville's first settler. He bought 50,000 to 100,000 acres of land in and around Greenville from the Cherokee Indians that were the native inhabitants of this area. A trader, Pearis's wife was a Cherokee. Pearis built Greenville's first mill, a large grist mill at the falls of the Reedy River. In 1776, his mills and his trading post were attacked and destroyed by armed patriots. Paris Mountain, a mountain in Greenville, was named after Richard Pearis, although their names were spelled differently.