Re: "Uncle" Bill Greenlee

I was blessed to have grown up in Clemson and certainly remember Uncle Bill Greenlee and he befriended me as a five year old.

He regularly came down the street with his horse and wagon with dogs following as Joe21 says.
One day, my father and I saw Uncle Bill coming towards our house in his wagon and my dad said to me,
"Come on, I want to introduce you to Mr. Greenlee".
When my dad introduced me as "Bill" to "Uncle Bill", Mr. Greenlee got a huge smile on his face and said,
"Well, we have the same name! It's such a good name, I'm gonna give you a case quarter".

And with that he gave me a shiny quarter and I cherished that coin for years and still cherish the memory of that encounter and the man who served people in Clemson for many decades.

**For those tigernetters too young to know about a case quarter, it is a single 25 cent coin as opposed to any combination of coins adding up to 25 cents...aka a "25 cent piece"...aka "a quarter dollar".

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Aug 22, 2020, 9:57 AM

I also was raised in Clemson. Uncle Bill Greenlee was a local legend. He was tall, slender and straight as an arrow. He either rode in his wagon or rode his horse. He always wore cavalry style boots with his pants tucked in tied nearly to his knees. One day in the 50's we had a fairly mean dog that jumped on a possum in the front yard. I didn't know whether the possum was dead or was playing dead, but he looked dead. During the commotion between the dog and the possum Uncle Bill rode up on his horse and asked us what was going on. I told him that my dog had killed a possum. Uncle Bill walked over to the possum and asked what we were going to do with him. We said we weren't going to do anything with him. At that moment, Uncle Bill planted one of his boots on the possum's neck, grabbed its tail and gave it a jerk, breaking its neck in the process. Then he picked it up, tied it behind his saddle and rode off with it. Until then I didn't know people ate possum.
Uncle Bill lived to be about 100 and died in the late 60's. There is a famous photo of him as a boy driving Thomas G. Clemson in a horse drawn cart. On FaceBook, there is a group called "The Uncle Bill Club". It has a lot of info and photos about him. There is a movement afoot to erect a statue of him in Clemson. He is quite a legend.

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"Uncle" Bill Greenlee

It was great seeing Uncle Bill come by the house on Riggs

Have never heard this story - what years ?***

Unfortunately, most Clemson folk are too young to remember

Uncle Bill and the "case quarter"