Land was purchased in Inman, S.C. by the Chapman family to build a textile plant, named Inman Mills. Located in the piedmont region of the Carolinas, textile plants were becoming numerous for several reasons: economical availability of hydroelectric power produced by local rivers, ease of transportation via railroads, roadways, as well as large and willing labor force. Along with this growth of textile mills in the piedmont area, growing cotton as a cash crop became popular. Cotton was planted at this time on the extra acreage owned by Inman Mills. However, due to sandy soil conditions in the piedmont area and the inability to mechanize these small cotton fields, area farmers along with the Chapman’s looked to new ideas for planting their fields.

All cotton fields surrounding Inman Mills had been planted into grass and a beef cattle operation was born. Fescue was planted for grazing and the outermost fields at Inman Mills were planted in Bermuda grass for hay. The plan was the vision of the President & CEO of Inman Mills at the time, Mr. Jim Chapman, whose desire was for the land surrounding the Mill to be planted with trees and grass and become aesthetically appealing but also profitable through the sell of cattle and hay.

In October of 1998 the first harvest operations of Tifway 419 was underway. Word quickly spread that Inman Mills was in the turfgrass business. Inman Mills was and still is very conscious of quality and service to the customer; therefore Inman Sod was very well received by the landscape and turf industry. After a short time Inman Sod began having difficulty keeping up with demand for Tifway 419.

Still unable to keep up with demand for turfgrass as well as interest in other varieties of turfgrass, the decision was made to purchase more land. Inman Sod purchased land along the Broad River. This farm has very good soil for the production of turfgrass as well as a good water resource in the Broad River.

 At the Broad River location a very unique water pumping system was installed where the irrigation pumps are floating on pontoons with wheels so they can be placed into and removed from the Broad River easily. With the infrastructure in place sprigging of Tifway 419 began in the spring of 2006. In the fall of 2006, harvest operations began.

In the fall of 2006 it was decided to plant tall fescue. After much thought and research of the different cultivars of fescue grasses and blends of fescue it was determined that Black Beauty would be the choice of fescue to produce. Black Beauty preformed extremely well and continues to perform well today.

Sprigging of the first Celebration Bermuda began. The plant material was trucked in from a foundation grass grower in Florida. Four acres of Celebration was sprigged and this field was used as a source for planting stock to expand Celebration acreage. Celebration acreage has continued to expand and by the summer of 2011 Inman Sod will have approximately 20 acres of Celebration in production.