City Directories and History: Information from: Names in South Carolina by C.H. Neuffer, Published by the S.C. Dept. of English, USC
Click here for Robert Mill’s Atlas “Chester County” maps on R&R.
“The Census of 1850 indicates that Chester District possessed quite a number of large plantation owners: Colonel Davie’s estate, Thomas deGraffenried, Charner Scaife, Thomas McLure, R. E. Kennedy, C. J. Jones, John G. Smith, Nancy Mobley, S. McAliley, and Dr. I. Mobley. , published in Columbia, February 24, 1864, announced his death, during the War: “Died at Oakland, his residence in Chester District, Tschamer H. DeGraffenried, in the 54th year of his age, leaving a widow and two children to deplore his death,” followed by a summary of his domestic and Baptist virtues. New names on these lists include Scaife, McLure, Kennedy and McAliley.
The writer has not been able to discover the names or exact locations in West Chester of the Scaife plantations. They obviously intermarried with the DeGraffenreids. The same is true of Richard Evans Kennedy (named for his grandfather, Richard Evans, an early Chester Co., pioneer), and the son of Major John Kennedy, “the father of Chesterville,” who married Sarah, daughter of Allen DeGraffenreid. Richard and Sarah lived in Chesterville in the old Dr. John ….. Street, built in 1819 and probably the first fine house constructed in the village. They sold the Allen DeGraffenreid plantation on Turkey Creek in 1854 to Chamer T. Scaife, whose lands adjoined it. But the Kennedy estate still included one hundred and twenty-three blacks in the Census of 1860, Richard having died on November 1, 1855. His estate papers mention “the Lee place.”
The Yorkville Enquirer reported on Nov. 15, 1877 – “The Sheriff of Chester Co., will sell a large parcel of land in December. The DeGraffenreid plantation of 4,000 on the Broad River is in the estate of G.W. Melton, deceased. Major Melton gave a mortgage on the property shorty before his death to a mortgage firm in New York.”
The McLures came to Chester from Mecklenburg County, North Carolina (there was an earlier family of the same name distinguished for its Revolutionary patriotism in Chester County but who did not become great planters in the ante-bellum period). Of the three McLure brothers moving from North to South Carolina, Thomas settled in the village of Chester, became a merchant and planter, and by 1850 was possessed of one hundred and eleven slaves. His unpretentious “early-American” town house stood where the brick homestead of Dr. Malcolm Lafayette Marion is now located on York Street (this should have been West End Street). He willed his extensive accumulation of land and slaves to his six children, having already settled his three older sons on plantations of their own, but designates each legacy only as “the land he now occupies” and the names of the plantations are not recollected by their descendants today. The McLures were town-dwellers. Two sons of Thomas of Chesterville became great planters. John Joseph, the eldest, owned one hundred and fifty slaves in 1860 and lived on Pinckney Street in the village in a large double-galleried house (now altered) of the Brewton-house style. His younger brother, Colonel Edward C. McLure, also lived in town but worked his one hundred and ten blacks (1860 Census) on his farm land. and “the Robinson place” near the town, but no plantation by name.
A third McLure great planter, James Stringfellow, son of William (brother of Thomas of Chesterville) purchased the Randell estate in West Chester and lived in such style that he was thought to be the wealthiest man above Columbia, but this was an exaggeration. His columned mansion, Redcliffe, built in 1843 doubtless by the Randells, was imposing enough for some exaggeration of his wealth. It survived, in dilapidation, until the 1950’s. The equally dilapidated plantation burying-ground near the home site can still be visited by crossing the red gullies of this Sandy River wasteland.
Forty or fifty years ago the hilltops throughout Chester County were surmounted by large, unpainted and fast decaying mansions frequently inhabited by the descendants of the former slaves of the owners. Snapshots of many of these ghostly survivals are preserved by lovers of past glories. But the names of most of these mansions—and they all had them—are forgotten. Among the most imposing were the twin Mobley Mansions, one on the Lancaster Road and one on the Peden’s Bridge Road, each built with glass in the square columns (a mark of the Mobleys, wherever they lived) in which the lights of each could be seen by the other. Perhaps the handsomest of all survivals into the Twentieth Century was the house built for Jack Rice about the year 1830 in the present Wilksburg community. This house burned in May, 1910. It was then known as the Major J. W. Wilks Homestead. Jack Rice had sold it to his son-in-law, T. C. Scaife, who afterwards sold it to Mr. Tucker, a brother-in-law of Captain T. M. Sanders, who acquired it for himself and gave it to his daughter, Mrs. John W. Wilks.8Nothing is known of the homestead in Blackstocks of Thomas McCullough Boulware, the largest slave owner in the County in the Census of 1860 (one hundred and fifty-seven Negroes) except that it was a very handsome house and was burned by Sherman’s men near the end of the War. This was a Classical Revival house in the grand manner, with a pedimented portico of four large columns, fan lights over the door and upper window, and dormers on the roof. The house had a tin roof and was known as Tin-tops by the Sanders and Wilks. Another mansion of monumental proportions is the unpainted shell of the Pickett-McCullough house on the highest eminence at Great Falls. No name and no history are available.
Nothing is known of the homestead in Blackstocks of Thomas McCullough Boulware, the largest slave owner in the County in the Census of 1860 (one hundred and fifty-seven Negroes) except that it was a very handsome house and was burned by Sherman’s men near the end of the War……
Aesculapian Hall (Douglas). Information from the Misses Craig, Chester, S. C.
The Baron’s Estate (DeGraffenried). This was a name apparently loosely used for DeGraffenried property. It was used in particular for the Blewett plantations (an in-law of the DeGraffenrieds) which became Cornwall property before the War.
Flint Hill (Gaston). Papers in possession of Mrs. Kirkwood Stringfellow, Goochland Plantation, Chester, S. C., give this name for the homestead, on a flint hill, of Dr. John B. Gaston. The family retained the plantation Hazelwood (Caldwell). Pictures and descriptions of this plantation can be found in the papers of Mrs. Mary Strainge, Chester Public Library. The house was recently demolished. name of “Cedar Shoals” of their earliest Chester ancestor, Justice John Gaston, for the land itself.
Millwood (Mills). Plantation home built shortly before the War by Edwin R. Mills now owned by the Frank Hicklin family.
Oakland (DeGraffenried). See above. The younger brother of Tschamer DeGraffenried of “Oakland,” named Thomas, lived in a very large home in Chesterville which later became Brainard College for Negroes and was pulled down in 1960.”
Information from: Names in South Carolina by C.H. Neuffer, Published by the S.C. Dept. of English, USC
“Boulware, Thomas McCullough of Blackstocks plantation (name unknown) . Born Dec. 14, 1829 (S.C.) ; married June 7, 1849, Mary Jane Vinson (Apr. 26, 1832-July 29, 1912); died Jan. 30, 1889. Education: Davidson College (1845-47). Church: Presbyterian. Slaves: 157 (Chester District).”
“deGraffenried, Tscharner Hobson of “Oakland,” Sandy River, plantation. Born 1810 (S.C.?); married Apr. 20, 1852, Mary Eaton Johnston (died Aug. 12, 1897); died Sept. 24, 1863. Education: College of S.C. (left, 1827). Church: Baptist (Deacon, Cool Branch). Slaves: 108 (Chester District).”
“Kennedy, Richard Evans (estate of) of Lee and Robinson plantations (names unknown) and Chesterville. Born Sept. 4, 1811 (S.C.); married Sarah deGraffenried (Nov. 25, 1818-Sept. 18, 1860) ; died Nov. 1, 1855. Church: Baptist (first Sunday School in Chesterville organized in his residence). Other: Trustee, Chesterville Female Academy Society. Slaves: 123 (Chester District).”
“McLure, Col. Edward Conrad of plantation (name unknown) and Chesterville. Born Aug. 19, 1834 (N.J.); married Jan. 27, 1859, Louisa L. Neely; [June 9, 1873, Jane Wylie (Oct. 7, 1845-Mar. 3, 1880) ; and Sept. 29, 1887, Mrs. C. R. Sproul]; died Feb. 27, 1889. Education: College of S.C. (left in 1852); Harvard College, A.B., 1854; read law (admitted to S.C. Bar, 1854). Church: Presbyterian. Public Service: Lieut. Col. (Gov. Gist’s staff). Slaves: 110 (Chester District).”
“McLure, James Stringfellow of “Redcliffe,” Sandy River, plantation. Born Feb. 16, 1834 (S.C.) ; married Feb. 24, 1853, Sallie E. Rice (Oct. 21, 1839-Mar. 6, 1880); died July 5, 1879. Education: College of S.C., A.B., 1851. Church: Presbyterian. Slaves: 120 (Chester District).”
“McLure, John Joseph of plantation name unknown and Chesterville. Born May 14, 1827 (N.J.) ; married Nov. 27, 1855, Elizabeth Heathly McIntosh (Aug. 28, 1834—Dec. 17, 1911); died Mar. 24, 1919. Education: Princeton College, A.B., 1846; read law (admitted to S.C. Bar, 1851). Church: Presbyterian. Public Service: Warden, Chester; Intendant of Chester. Slaves: 150 (Chester District).”
Plantation entries via: The Last Foray, C. Gaston Davidson, SC Press – 1971
The DeGraffenried family claims high descent from Christopher, Baron deGraffenried, one of the early Landgraves of Carolina. They intermarried with the Thomas and Blewett families of Chester, both of whom owned over a hundred slaves in 1830. In the Census of 1840, Thomas deGraffenreid with one hundred and nine slaves was, next to Colonel F. W. Davie with one hundred and thirty-eight, Chester’s largest planter. The DeGraffenried property in West Chester was referred to as The Baron’s Estate. The plantation burying-ground with elaborate marble memorials on the Fish Dam Road is now a pile of rubble. three stories with thirteen or fourteen rooms, burned in 1895. The last of the great planters of the DeGraffenried name was Tschamer Hobson DeGraffenried, who owned one hundred and eight slaves in 1860. He married a well-educated governess from New York and lived on original DeGraffenried property on Sandy River. The Confederate Baptist The Census of 1850 indicates that Chester District possessed quite a number of large plantation owners: Colonel Davie’s estate, Thomas deGraffenried, Char- ner Scaife, Thomas McLure, R. E. Kennedy, C. J. Jones, John G. Smith, Nancy Mobley, S. McAliley, and Dr. I. Mobley. , published in Columbia, February 24, 1864, announced his death, during the War: “Died at Oakland, his residence in Chester District, Tschamer H. DeGraffenried, in the 54th year of his age, leaving a widow and two children to deplore his death,” followed by a summary of his domestic and Baptist virtues.
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Shelley Haag Freedman-Bailey says
My Mother, Jennie Lee McCullough, was born at the McCullough Plantation on January 27, 1918 to William Pickett McCullough and Annie Louise Gossett McCullough. On July 8, 1919 Pickett died of typhoid fever, It is believed he drank water from one of the tenant wells and became ill. My grandmother had a one year old daughter and was pregnant at the time with her son, William Pickett McCullough. The property was sold to Duke Power Company.
rradmin says
Hi,
We are working on adding your submission to R&R. Thank you for submitting it! Do you know when the house was constructed, an address, is the house still standing or did Duke demolish it as they did with so many others, where is William McCullough and family buried, etc? Also, we would love to receive additional family images and genealogy if available.
R&R
Shelley Freedman-Bailey says
The McCullough house was constructed in 1830. It was located at routes 21& 97 in Great Falls where the Health Center is now located. It was demolished in the 1980’s. From my research I found that Republic Cotton Mills bought the majority of the property not Duke power as I had been told. William Pickett McCullough, Jr. is buried in Heath Chapel Cemetery beside his father, William Pickett McCollough and his mother, Love (Amelia) Jones McCollough. Heath Chapel is located on route 99 in Great Falls.
Tasia Coles says
Does anyone have any information on the Younge family??
Gloria J Poole says
My great grandmother was named Kucinda )Lula) Pratt. Pratt was a slave owners name but I can’t locate information regarding this plantation. Help a sista’ out.
Sharon says
Do you no or have any information about the Mitcham family
rradmin says
Roots and Recall has information on the free African American Mitcham family of York Co., S.C. Any connection?
Faith Carr says
Can you give me any information about the Macon family in Chester, South Carolina? I am interested in our history there. My great-great grand mother and her family were there in the 1800’s. Thank you.
Joyce Locksmith says
Wonderful comment!
certified Lucy says
Fantastic!
Wayne says
THANKS for this great article.
The ‘Major J. W. WILKS homestead’ is mentioned in the article.
Major John Wesley WILKS 1829-1906 is my 2nd great-grandfather.
His 1st wife (of 3) was Sarah Ann SANDERS 1835-1874. (She is my 2nd great-grandmother)
Sarah Ann SANDERS was the daughter of Major John SANDERS 1809-1882 and Matilda STOKES 1813-1849.
The article says that Captain T. M. SANDERS gave the homestead to his daughter Mrs. John W. WILKS.
But Captain Thomas Mabry SANDERS 1844-1911 was not the father of Sarah Ann (SANDERS) WILKS. They were cousins.
Sarah Ann SANDERS (WILKS) gravestone at Calvary Baptist Church cemetery is inscribed “Only daughter of Major John Sanders”. I contend she was his only child.
edward mccallum says
Any idea as to the Red Hill plantation near Leeds?