The Columbia Dailey Phoeonix reported on Nov. 5, 1868 contained an ad for Pomaria Nurseries, Wm. Summers, Agent. “We have the largest and best selection of fruit trees ever offered by these nurseries. These include; apples, peaches, pears, and many other fruits. We also have many ornamental evergreens, roses and flowers.”
City Directories and History: This was the home of wealthy planter, John Summer, the founder of the town of Pomaria. Constructed in about 1825, the farm became the seat of the famous Pomaria Nurseries, one of the South’s largest antebellum plant suppliers. The nursery was owned and operated by William Summer as was the Post Office.
The Pomaria Post Office in the Southeastern part of the county was established about the year 1840. The name was given by Mr. William Summer, the founder and proprietor of the Pomaria Nurseries, which were so long and so favorably known throughout the country. Mr. Summer, if I mistake not, was the first Postmaster. About the year 1850 the Post Office was moved to where the present town of Pomaria now is on the completion of the Greenville and Columbia Railroad to that point. William Summer was Postmaster and Thomas W. Holloway (who is, in 1892, P. M.) Assistant.
William never married, but might be called the father of Pomaria and the Pomaria Nurseries. Henry Summer left three children, only two of whom were alive in 1892, his son John Adam, and daughter Catherine, who is happily married to Rev. J. F. Kiser, a Lutheran minister. John Adam owns the homestead of his grandfather, John Summer. The other daughter of Henry Summer, Mary, married Dr. J. K. Chapman. At her death she left three children, one daughter and two sons. Thomas Summer, the youngest brother of Henry Summer, I knew for awhile in his youth. He died early. He was a student, I think, in some German university.
(Information from: The Annals of Newberry Co., SC – O’Neall and Chapman, Aull and Houseal Publishers – 1892)
(Summer-Huggins House) The Pomaria plantation house is considered to have been constructed by John Adam Summer ca. 1825 on the site of an earlier Summer family dwelling. The house combines elements of both Federal and Greek Revival architecture and has been the home of a family whose members have had a significant role in the fields of agriculture and government in Newberry County. The two-story house with full attic is set on a raised foundation. The front façade is characterized by a Federal two-story pedimented portico which projects forward from the central portion of the façade and is flanked at right and left by symmetrical 9/9 fenestration, arranged in two bays. Each story of the portico also has a central doorway with traceried sidelights and transom in the Greek Revival style. Interior features include paneled wainscoting, a pilastered elliptical arch in the central hall, molded cornices, Greek Revival door and window moldings, and Federal mantels and paneled doors. The property also contains an extant collection of original dependencies, which include a log smokehouse, a board and batten privy, and a Carpenter Gothic post office, the first post office in the Dutch Fork. Also, the Pomaria Nurseries were begun on the plantation in 1840 by William Summer, who was a Newberry attorney. He was considered highly knowledgeable in the field of horticulture, introducing rare, imported plant specimens, and in some instances creating new varieties through the grafting process. Listed in the National Register April 24, 1979. [Courtesy of the SC Dept. of Archives and History]
Pomaria – The Summer family were among the very first settlers in this general area. John Adam Summer, the pioneer of the group, came from Pennsylvania. News of his kindness to the Indians there preceded him by runners and wherever he stopped he received a royal welcome from the natives. These emigrants were attracted, as one of them expressed it, “by the verdure-clad hills and dales” in Newberry District. The region reminded them of the Palatinate in the Rhine Valley, whence they had come.
The material in this article has come largely from “A History of the Summer Plantation, Pomaria” by James Efird Kinard. He is a direct descendant of the Summer family and is now associated with the University of Virginia. This author tells us that William Summer, a great grandson of John Adam, “never married but might be called the father of Pomaria and the Pomaria Nurseries.” He named the place “Pomaria” from the Latin “pomus,” meaning “plants” or “trees.” He used the feminine adjective which is spelled “Pomaria.”
William s father built the ancestral home, which is a beautifully designed and sturdily constructed dwelling. It is occupied today by members of the Summer family. There stands on the grounds the unique frame dwelling which William erected to serve as the first post office in that section before a railroad came through. It was also a regular stop for the stagecoaches on their way from North Carolina to Charleston. It is believed by the family that John Adam Summer had a large, original grant of land from King George III. The grant has never been found by any living members of the family and it is supposed to have been destroyed when Union soldiers occupied the area during the War Between the States. Mr. Kinard writes: ‘William Summer also operated a large nursery. The nurseries became widely known in South Carolina and in other states, many rare plants being shipped to all parts of the country. Mr. Summer imported rare specimens from Europe and thus started in this country many species that were not native to our shores. It is thought, too, that in some instances he gave new plants through a grafting process. Cedars of Lebanon were imported from the Holy Land and many other foreign plants and shrubs were brought in. Around the present house were five hundred apple trees, five hundred peach trees and five hundred pear trees. One big pear tree, across the road from the house, still remains. Gardeners were hired from Europe.
“The Summer, or Pomaria Nurseries had the reputation of being one of the largest and best in the South. Once when a great niece of William Summer was traveling in Mississippi an old man came to her XI: 53 and asked if she were a ‘Pomaria Summer.* When he learned that William Summer, the nurseryman, was her great uncle, he brought a large basket of apples, pears, and peaches and said that all the Carolina settlers in Mississippi had gotten their fruit trees from the Summer Nurseries. “The magazine, Southern Agriculturist, was edited by William Summer and his brother Adam. Articles in this publication described plants, experiments, crops, etc.”
When the town was located later about two miles from the Summer home at the time the railroad was built, it was given the name which William Summer had selected for the family plantation.
(Information from: Names in South Carolina by C.H. Neuffer, Published by the S.C. Dept. of English, USC)
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