In the early
1900's Easley was, essentially, a two family town. There
were the Hagoods and the Smiths. Each had their own store and bank. For
Easley, at that time, commerce was restricted for the most part to those
two families. But by the late 1920's and through the 1930's the
railroad brought others to town. Easley began to grow. Main Street became
a bustling business center. Then the war came.
World War 2 meant
lean times for most merchants. Rationing put a big bite on the
availability of goods. But those who had something to sell made a
good living during those years. With the end of the war in 1945, things
began to change, mostly for the better.
Merchants who had
kept odd hours during the war years, grew tired of inconsistencies among
their Main Street neighbors. Some stores opened early and closed
late. Others opened late and closed early - most fell somewhere in
between.
There were other
gripes and complaints ... and Jack Ragsdale heard them all. As an
employee of The Easley Progress selling advertising, Jack made his
rounds to local businesses for nearly a year before he decided to do
something to help address the problems (he felt) every Easley business
faced.
In the spring of
1947, he began his efforts to form the Easley Chamber of Commerce.
There had been a loose organization of downtown business owners before the
war in the 1020's and 1930's, but the Businessmen's Association had
lost its effectiveness. Jack thought it was time to try to bring
everyone together - the attitude toward rules and enforced order from the
war years had worn off after two years of relative economic freedom.
Then only in his
mid-20's, Jack was chosen as the Chamber's first President.
At the time, Jack thought it was a great honor because among the board
members were all of the established "heavy hitters" of the
Easley business community. Only in his later years did Jack realize he was
really chosen to be the "leg man" - most of the established
businessmen supported the Chamber but were beyond the days when they could
or would devote the time necessary for building a Chamber of commerce.
