Happyville, South Carolina

The colony was founded by Yiddish-speaking Russian-Jewish socialists who wanted an escape from the sweatshops of New York City.

In 1905, a group of Russian-Jewish socialists from New York founded a farming colony in Aiken County that they called "Happyville".

[1][2][3] During the early 20th century, the state of South Carolina created the Department of Agriculture, Commerce, and Immigration at the urging of a wealthy banker in Columbia, with the intention of attracting "desirable" European immigrants, particularly Russians.

The department's campaign, printed in both German and Yiddish, was called "South Carolina, The Garden of America", and attracted the attention of the Jewish-American socialist Charles Weintraub and his business associate Morris Latterman.

The project was blighted by bad weather, insufficient funds, and land unsuitable for growing crops.