Heyward Hall takes its name from its present owners, as it has previously been known as Kincaid Manor and Anderson Manor. It was built by Captain James Kincaid in 1774 of English brick with a mahogany stairway. Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin, visited Kincaid, and saw the first water-powered cotton gin in operation, (said visit is undocumented). It was soon after this visit that Whitney patented his gin. A Kincaid daughter married an Anderson, who operated the nearby granite quarries. The house was later occupied by the Dan Heywards, whose family owned and operate the famed quarries…. (Information from: Names in South Carolina by C.H. Neuffer, Published by the S.C. Dept. of English, USC)
City Directories and History: One of Fairfield County’s long-term industries was the mining of beautiful Winnsboro Blue Granite stone which had been used for thousands of build purposes throughout the United States. The best known of these is the Washington Monument.
Workers at the quarry lived throughout the area but the management staff lived here and resided in beautifully constructed stone homes originally owned by the Anderson Quarry. This house was the overall manager’s home.
HISTORY: Benjamin Huger Heyward (son of Daniel and Elizabeth Rhett Heyward of Lucknow Plantation on the Savannah River) came to Fairfield County in 1903 to take up the management of the Winnsboro Blue Granite (Anderson-Kincaid) Quarry. In 1930, Ben was killed in a tragic accident when a derrick holding up several tons of granite failed and the load crushed to the bottom of the quarry where he had been standing. His sons Daniel and John Tabb Heyward took over management of the quarry. Dan, who was married to Nancy Witherspoon (of York County) was then killed in a tragic accident in 1941 when he ran through a stop, into a pulpwood timber truck, near the quarry. He was 49 and the couple had no children. Nancy committed suicide in the basement of Heyward Hall, which was the plantation home built by
James Kincaid in 1774 http://www.nationalregister.sc.gov/fairfield/S10817720019/ . Heyward Hall was later renamed Fairfield by Crosby and Cleo Lewis who beautifully restored the house and the landscaping in the 1970s. The Lewises have just recently sold the place to a doctor from Charleston.
Dan’s nephews, Ben Heyward, III, George M. Heyward, and John Tabb Heyward, Jr. inherited the quarry and John Tabb’s widow, Flo Buchanan Heyward of Columbia now owns the shuttered operation. Contributed to R&R 8.9.16 by Pelham Lyles
THE COTTON GIN AND MORE: I again quote from “Mills’ Statistics:, “James Kincaid was a native of Ireland.
In the Revolution he took that ‘better part’ which so many others, natives and foreigners, thought at the time was a hazardous enterprise, and would in the end be stigmatized and punished as a rebellion. Mr. Kincaid commanded a troop of cavalry at the Battle of Eutaw, in which affair he greatly distinguished himself. He was after the return of better times, a member from Fairfield, for many years, of the State Legislature. He was the first purchaser of Cotton in the up-country and did more than any other individual to enrich it by giving
encouragement to the production of that great staple of South Carolina. Captain Kincaid died of a malignant fever in Charleston in 1800.”
History awards the invention of the cotton gin to Whitney, but it seems wrongfully, from the following paragraph published in the Columbia Register during the New Orleans Exposition: “Among the South Carolina exhibits at New Orleans will be the original letters patent of parchment, signed by G. Washington, President, and granted to H. Holmes of South Carolina, for a cotton Gin. A letter accompanies the patent written by Mr. George McMaster, of Winnsboro, S. C., which expressed the belief that Whitney filched the invention from Holmes, and that ‘James Kincaid, a soldier of the Revolution, being told by his friend Holmes, who lived near Hamburg, in this State, that he had invented a cotton gin, agreed to take the gin and try it at his mill which was located in the western part of Fairfield County. He did so, and while the mill was
closed for a few hours, in the absence of Kincaid, a young man rode to the house and requested of Mrs. Kincaid permission to examine the mill. She. forgetting the injunction of her husband not to permit anyone to enter the mill during his absence, gave the key to the young man, who returned it in a short time and rode off.”
Mr. Kincaid subsequently learned that the young man was Whitney, and this is believed by Kincaid’s descendants, who still own the mill site. The old, original cotton gin was burned, along with the mill, at the time of Sherman’s destructive march through the State. Dr. William Cloud, who married a daughter of Holmes, preserved the parchments. Accepting it as true that the cotton gin was the invention of a South Carolinian, it will be seen that she has led all the States in everything connected with the great southern staple. She invented the cotton gin, and her legislature was the
first to pay a royalty for its use. The only improvement on the gin saw has recently been patented by a South Carolinian, and the “Cotton Harvester” is a South Carolina invention.”
I have heard my father say that the first cotton gin he ever saw was one owned by Capt. James Kincaid and propelled by water power. There was no cotton presses then, now for many years afterward. What little there was produced, was, after being ginned, packed and bound in bales. The process was this: A circular hole was made in the gin house floor, the bagging sewed together, making a round bale about six feet long, and two and a half in diameter. This bag was confined at the top around the circular hole, into which the cotton was put form above in small quantities at a time, and trodden down by a heavy man, having a maul, or often a crowbar, to pack it with. Another person was on the ground below, whose office it was to keep the bag wet outside by means of a tub of water and a broom. The bales weighed from two hundred and fifty pounds to three hundred. The first cotton presses, (then called screws) were used about the year 1810 or 1812. The common weight of a bale of cotton prior to 1828 was three hundred pounds. Captain James Kincaid had several daughters and one son, Daniel McMahon, of Pickneyville, I think, married the oldest daughter. I know their sons, James, Daniel, and John. James went to the west. Daniel remained in Union for many years. He practiced medicine and planted there. John after graduating in medicine, practiced his profession for a few years, and turned his attention to planting. He married Miss Sue Haynesworth, of Sumter, in 1858, and died at his home near Ashford’s Ferry in
1865 of typhoid fever. His widow, two daughters and son, are now living in Columbia. His son, John, graduated this year at the South Carolina University with high honors. One of Capt. Kincaid’s daughters married Dr. Ervin, of Greenville, another Colonel Hill of Alabama, one a Mr. Harris of Mississippi, and I think one married Colonel John Glenn of Newberry County. A Mr. Pope of Edgefield also married a daughter of Capt. Kincaid. She did not live long and left one son, James Pope. Another daughter, Nancy, married Col. Alexander H. Hill, of York County. They lived near my father’s. Colonel Hill was a tailor, the only one in the vicinity. He was fond of a joke and kept a tavern on the Chester and Winnsboro Road. They had two daughters, Mary, the elder, died in the bloom of youth, a beautiful girl, Jane the other daughter married James B. Mobley., in 1821 and died soon after.
Colonel William Kincaid, the only son, married a Miss Calmus. He lived at his father’s homestead and was an extensive and (words missing). He built a large brick barn and stables, reared his horses, mules, cattle, hogs, and sheep. He owned a mill propelled by water power, and ground grain as well as sawed lumber. He was noted for his industrious and economical habits. He kept a store in which he sold general merchandise. He bought cotton in the seed and ginned. He was the owner of a landed estate and many slaves. He commanded a company of militia during the War of 1812. He died in Charleston in the year 1835. His widow lived many years afterwards and proved to be an efficient manager of her planting interests. J Colonel Kincaid left four sons and many daughters. The eldest, Elizabeth, married Mr. Edward Anderson, of Charleston, a nephew of John Kirkpatrick, factor and commission merchant. He died not long after their union and she never married again. She was a very intellectual and estimable lady and died a few years age, leaving an only son, Thomas Anderson, He managed her farm and mill many years, and is at present a agent on the Columbia Canal. Nancy Kincaid married a Mr. Hastings. She died in 1886, leaving no children. One daughter of Capt. Kincaid married a Mr. Armstrong who died not long after, leaving a son and daughter. (Reprint from the CDGHS – Bulletin)
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