LOWER RICHLAND COUNTY NAMES – PART II

The Yorkville Enquirer reported on Sept. 15, 1870 – “The Congaree race course near Columbia was recently sold at auction by the Sheriff for $3,400.”

A part of the article on names, see Part I (Information from: Names in South Carolina by C.H. Neuffer, Published by the S.C. Dept. of English, USC)

See the Congaree National Swamp Map by Mayhugh – 2015 on Part I of the Lower Richland County Names page. Link bottom of this page.

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City Directories and History: Pincushion Community, located near the Bluff Road on lands between Cabin Branch and Cedar Creek was named because of the sponginess of its soil. The swampland of the Congaree in this section is called Before 1756 there is no record of any church services in Lower Richland, but at that time an act was passed directing that a church should be built; the minister to  receive a salary of seven hundred pounds. He was also to preach at the most thickly populated points within a radius of forty miles at least once every six months.

The Presbyterians were the first to be established in this section, locating their church on Cedar Creek. It was probably of the German Reformed branch of the Presbyterian Church. It soon passed out of existence and the neighborhood later became the seat of a Methodist church. In 1764 and 1765 Philip Mulkey, a minister who organized the first Baptist Church in the upcountry, held services on Cedar Creek and baptized thirty-five persons. They organized the Congaree Baptist Church. About 1800 it was moved to its present site on Tom’s Creek where it is crossed by the Bluff Road. This church, built on an acre of land given by William Howell was located near the present Congaree Station. This church which became the mother of all Baptist churches in this part of the state, had for its first pastor Joseph Reese who lived several miles away near Pincushion Swamp.

See #102 for details on Congaree Baptist Church and Cemetery: Richland County Historical Sites and Structures Report

The Baptists left in the vicinity of the old church soon formed themselves into a congregation which met in the Minerva Academy and they established the Beulah (Beula) Baptist Church.

a sermon appropriate to the occasion was delivered by Dr. Maxcy from I Peter 2:5. Amos DuBose was called as pastor and accepted.” In the church minutes for April 26, 1806, is the following: “The members met attended by our revered Dr. Jonathan Maxcy, Stephen Nixon and Amos DuBose when In 1810 a church building was begun on Cedar Creek toward Horrell Hill on land donated by the Reverend Isaac Tucker. At his death the following year it was found that the property was entailed so once again the congregation returned to Minerva Academy.

A new church was built in 1828 on the east side of Cedar Creek on land donated by Robert Adams (1793- 1850). This church was burned in 1934 and the church which is now in use was built the following year.

The Episcopal Church began in Lower Richland in 1820 by the erection of a chapel for the use of the Negroes on the plantation of William Clarkson, a wealthy planter. This is said to have been the first church built exclusively for Negroes in South Carolina. For five years it was the center of church work, then after a ten-year period in which it was closed, it was opened again as Wateree Chapel. At this time it ministered to a few white families and the Negroes of the surrounding plantations.

In 1846 a new church, Zion of Wateree, was built and in 1880 a church was erected at Eastover, six miles from the site of old Zion of Wateree. Some of the material in the old building was used in the new Zion Church. St. John’s, Congaree, was established in 1858 on land given by Dr. William Weston (1812-1865). The Weston family burying ground which had been in use for many years was the site of the church. Governor James Hopkins Adams (1812- 1861) and Dr. William Weston were the leading promoters for the building of the church. The present church built in 1911 is a
substantial brick building, an early twentieth century interpretation of Gothic architecture.

The Parsonage, which was the old rectory for St. John’s, Congaree, and Zion, Eastover, is located in the  Sand Hills. It is a simple but lovely example of Gothic Revival architecture. It is a frame building with board and batten exterior. With beautiful stained glass windows and other appointments placed to the glory of God and in memory of its founders as well as members who have given so much of their lives to this church, it stands as a reminder of the courage and faith of its former members and an inspiration to those who come to worship there. The house which is still standing is occupied by the descendants of the Reverend John Huske Tillinghast (1835-1933), an early Episcopal minister who served as rector of Zion, Eastover, and St. John’s, Congaree, for more than forty years. The Chapel, erected next to the Parsonage in 1887 by Mrs. Amelia Clarkson, was for the use of the summer colony in the Sand Hills. Although it was torn down about 1917, the Chapel doors still stand on the property.

See #89 (Nutshell) for details: Richland County Historical Sites and Structures Report

See #93 (Beverly Hills) for details: Richland County Historical Sites and Structures Report

Mrs. Thomas B. Clarkson and her daughter, Miss Julia Clarkson, organized a school in the yard of their Sand Hills home for the Negro children of the neighboring plantations. In 1871 an Episcopal Chapel known as St. Thomas Chapel was built by the Reverend Thomas B. Clarkson on the same property. Services for the Negroes of the section are still held here twice a month.

Minerva Academy, located in the community of Minervaville, between Cabin Branch and Cedar Creek, was founded by the Minerva Society. They petitioned for incorporation November 29, 1802. The children of many prominent families attended the school, among them were three of the grandsons of Joel Adams I (1750-1830) and Grace Weston Adams. The school was said to be in charge of Professor William James Bingham who later founded the Bingham School in North Carolina. In 1834 the Minerva Academy was closed and by an Act of Legislature, December 18, 1834, the trustees were authorized to sell the property and after paying the debts to turn the money over to the Beulah Baptist Church.

Mill Creek School, both a day and boarding school, named for the nearby creek, was founded about 1800 an lands given by Mrs. William Goodwyn for a building to be used as both a school and church. It is located near what is now Pinewood Lake and was in operation until 1887.

Palmetto Academy, a Sand Hills school which stood on lands adjoining the summer home of Edward Brevard Heyward, was in operation early in the nineteenth century. The .principal house, a plain but substantial two story building, is still standing and is the home of the Pete Larsavick family.

Elm Savannah School House, built on the plantation of Joel Adams, was used as a school for children of the neighboring plantations,68 and worship services were also held here before St. John’s Church, Congaree, was built in 1858.

Soon after the Revolutionary War, Colonel Wade Hampton (1752-1835) came to live in Richland County and purchased many thousands of acres of land. Much of his property extending from Gill’s Creek in the Gamer’s Ferry Road area to the swamp lands of the Congaree River, was obtained through the South Carolina Land Act of 1785. With Colonel Thomas Taylor and Timothy Rives he bought a tract of 18,500 acres at ten cents an acre. Colonel Taylor retained a portion of the upper part of the tract and Colonel Hampton became owner of the balance. Two years prior to this he had married Mrs. Martha Epps Goodwyn Howell and at her death in 1784 he acquired a large plantation, Greenfield, in the Congaree River swamp.

The Machines, a plantation worked by 197 slaves, was possibly named because of the mechanical devices used thereon. Other Lower Richland plantations owned by him were Millwood, Woodlands, and the Machines.  At Woodlands Colonel Hampton built his home by 1790 and it stood until Sherman’s march in 1865 when it was destroyed by fire. The name of the plantation was obviously descriptive of the timberlands on the property.

The house at Millwood named no doubt because of its proximity to the Hampton and Goodwyn mills was built at the time of the marriage of Colonel Wade Hampton II (1791-1858) and Ann Fitzsimons who was the daughter of a wealthy Charleston merchant, Christopher Fitzsimons. From his father he inherited the plantations in Richland District. Colonel Hampton was a substantial planter before his father’s death, owning 146 slaves in 1830.

“At magnificently and elegantly furnished Millwood which was built in the grand manner of the storied southern planter, he accumulated a great library, spared no expense in lavishly entertaining and maintained a racing establishment which for many years made him preeminent on the South Carolina turf.” There are no pictures of Millwood in existence and all that was left, after it was burned in 1865, were the massive columns which still stand. An interesting letter written from Columbia, August 6, 1842, from John Temple Seibels to his wife Mrs. Ann Seibels gives us these facts: “Mr. and Mrs. Smith and myself rode out to Millwood yesterday afternoon, but found no person at home, and none of us carried any cards. Mr. Smith gave the servant a small basket that Miss Harriet Hampton had a few days ago carried some figs into his wife and said that would answer for his card. We called for water and the servant brought us some in a large cut glass pitcher and 3 silver goblets. The yard was spread all over with white sand like that at the horse pond, and not a chip nor a stone to be seen in it and under the house sanded in like manner. We then rode to Woodlands, his father’s residence and from thence through the plantation.”

After Colonel Wade Hampton’s (1791-1858) death, Wade Hampton III (1812-1902) assumed specific debts and acquired lands in Mississippi, but he built a home, Diamond Hill, in what is now the Forest Hills section of Columbia. His four sisters became owners of the Millwood property. The plantation contained 1079 acres and thirty-nine slaves. Woodlands and the Machines became the property of Frank Hampton I.  On March 22, 1865, after Millwood and Diamond Hill lay in ashes — Wade Hampton wrote to his beloved sister Mary Fisher Hampton [from near Bentonville, N. C.] “It has been a great distress to me, hearing that Millwood was burned. It distressed me more than the loss of my own house. We must not worry at these things if God will only spare us all and give us peace.” In January 1866 General Hampton had Mr. Clark Waring of Columbia build a cottage for him near the site of his burned home. It was called The Southern Cross.

On Chappell’s Cabin Branch Plantation at Hopkins stands the oldest house in Lower Richland. It was built by Major Hicks Chappell (1758-1846) at the time of his marriage to Elizabeth Threewits in 1781. Here he lived until his death in 1846. The plantation was originally given the name of the branch on which it was located and later it had the name of its owner added to distinguish it from other plantations on Cabin Branch that had the same name. The house is interesting from the standpoint of its structure as well as from the history of the early Chappell family. The simple two-story frame house built on the style of those of early Virginia, consisted of two shed rooms on the front, which were the library and dining room. The parlor was a spacious room behind the shed rooms. Bedrooms were on the second floor and an attic was above. The kitchen, typical of the period, was in the yard.

See #111 for details: Richland County Historical Sites and Structures Report

Major Hicks Chappell entered the army as a boy of eighteen as a private, fighting with Generals Sumter and Marion. At the close of the Revolution he was awarded the rank of major. John Joel Chappell (b. 1782), the oldest son of Major Hides Chappell, was a distinguished citizen of his time. He was an officer in the War of 1812, a lawyer, a statesman, serving from March 4, 1813, to March 3, 1817, as Congressman from the Second District. One child born to this couple died in infancy and several years later the mother also passed away. Both are buried in the First Baptist Church yard in Columbia. On January 3, 1833, his daughter Eugenia married Andrew Pickens Calhoun (1812-1865), the son of John C. Calhoun (1782- 1850), the ceremony taking place in the parlor of Chappell’s Cabin Branch. This interesting home, remodeled in recent years, has additional rooms and a wide porch across the front of the house.

Back Swamp was the early plantation home of John Hopkins (1739-1775) of Virginia and his wife Sarah Thomas of Georgia. Here in 1764 he received a royal grant for two hundred acres. The first home located near the old Hopkins Burying Ground has been gone for many years but and before the Revolution had subsequent grants giving him well over a thousand acres in the vicinity of what is now Hopkins. The name Back Swamp was given because of the location of the lands bordering the Congaree River swamp. the base of its brick chimney stands embedded in the east side of the brick wall surrounding the cemetery. The overseer’s house was remodeled by David T. Hopkins, the son of John Hopkins II (1765-1832) and is now owned by Dr. Tiffany Claytor.

Cabin Branch Plantation was granted to John Hopkins (1739-1775) in 1773 and later became the property of his son, John Hopkins II (1765-1832). About 1800 he commenced to build an elaborate home for himself and his wife, Amy Goodwyn Hopkins. At the time of Sherman’s march through South Carolina, the Hopkins family had taken refuge in the Sand Hills at the home of Mrs. Keziah Goodwyn Hopkins Brevard. When the Union officers reached the house at Cabin Branch they found that General William Hopkins was a Thirty-second Degree Mason. Seeing his Masonic jewels they gave orders for the house not to be burned, but they carried away the jewels.  The house which took five years to complete consisted of three brick cellars, one of which was a wine storage area; two large rooms, a hall and two shed rooms on the first floor; and bedrooms on the second floor. About 1833 it was remodeled, at which time a hall, two spacious rooms and a wide porch were added on the back. It was occupied at this time by General William Hopkins and his children.

This house, still standing, is the property of the William English Hopkins family, the fifth generation of Hopkins to live in it. Old Field Plantation, formerly known as Cabin Branch, is located in Hopkins near the Lower Richland High School. This tract for which John Hopkins (1739- 1775) obtained a royal grant in 1775. It became the property of Mrs. Keziah Goodwyn Hopkins Brevard, the daughter of Dr. James Hopkins. It was burned in February, 1865. The property is now owned by the Hopkins family and they have a spacious home near the site of the first. This part of the plantation fell to Dr. James Hopkins (1773-1844) who married Keziah Goodwyn, and on it he built an imposing home with sandstone foundation. The house, which was begun in 1809, consisted of two large rooms and two shed rooms on the first floor, with sleeping quarters above. Later two more rooms were added to take care of James Hopkins Adams (1812-1861) and his servants. Here the future governor spent much of his boyhood.

Among the earliest settlers to take land in the Fork was the Myers family. The first royal grant to Rudolph Myers [Meyer] for three hundred acres is recorded August 19, 1749. In the Hopkins area, Colonel David Myers (ca. 1750), a descendant of Rudolph Myers, was the owner and perhaps builder of Fort Marion, the only brick house in this section. Located on Back Swamp it is said that the bricks were brought from England. Colonel Myers, who commanded a regiment of militia, was one of the wealthiest planters of his time. By his will dated June 26, 1833, he left his plantation Greenfield containing twelve hundred acres, with grist and saw mills to his daughter Nancy. To his son Robert Myers he left the plantation Fort Marion on which he resided, in addition to several other tracts.

Fort Marion – Below Hopkins off the Bluff Road is was most likely named for General Francis Marion. The house was burned about 1900.

Meeting House Plantation – It received its name from a house built by Joel Adams (1750-1830) to be used for religious services. The first house is not standing but near its site is a home built by the granddaughter of Joel Adams, Mrs. Grace Adams Davis (1815-1898). Some years ago it was remodeled into a more spacious home and was occupied by Sarah Hopkins Adams, who married Edward McCrady Clarkson. It has remained in the Clarkson family and is now occupied by the John Gorman Clarksons. James Adams (1776-1841), one of the sons of Joel Adams (1750-1830) had his plantation and a large home at Pea Ridge, between Congaree and Gadsden. It was burned many years ago.

Two interesting plantation homes at Congaree are Elm Savannah, named for its elm trees and its proximity to the Swamplands and Grovewood, built on higher ground in a grove of trees, hence the name Grovewood, the ancestral home of the Weston family. Elm Savannah was the home of Joel Adams II (1784-1859) and his wife Mary Goodwyn (Polly) Hopkins. Built about 1828 it was one of the handsomest homes of the section. It was burned in 1866. Before the large house was built, Joel Adams had a small cottage constructed to which he took his bride in 1808. This house, which is still standing, originally consisted of two rooms on the first floor and two attic rooms above. The brick kitchen with Dutch oven was in the yard. In later years the house was enlarged and is now the home of Mr. and Mrs. Christian Tucker Weston.

When William Weston (b.c. 1724) came to the Fork from Edenton, North Carolina, about 1750, bringing with him his wife, the former Sarah Luten whom he had married on May 7, 1744. Finding that their home was not in a healthful location, they had it rolled through the woods to he built their home on a site across the road from where St. John’s Episcopal Church was later built. As was the custom at that period, a burying ground for a member of the family was established on its place. This later became a part of St. John’s Cemetery.

Grovewood – This house was the beginning of the beautiful home of the Weston family. It is now a handsome two-story simple classic Revival home with an English basement. The William Westons’ daughter Grace, born September 27, 1752, was the wife of Joel Adams who was born in Virginia on February 4, 1750. Their son William Weston married Grace Hirons and lived at The entrance on the second floor is reached by a wide stairway, leading into a spacious hall flanked by a drawing room and dining room. The kitchen originally in the yard was added to the house along with large pantries. On the second floor are the bedrooms.

Gum Tree Plantation – The William C. Westons are now the owners of near Congaree.” The Weston descendants come through this line. When David T. Hopkins (1804-1836) died, he left provision that a comfortable, handsome home should be built for his wife Frances Tucker Hopkins. After Mrs. Hopkins’ death in 1864 the property was acquired by James Pickett Adams and the name changed to Magnolia was built about 1855. The house with an English basement has six massive columns supporting the upper and lower piazzas. Large halls run the length of both floors. Its name was chosen because of the beautiful Magnolia trees around the house.

Wavering Place – Inherited later by his daughter Lilia, who married Theodore Brevard Hayne, it has remained in the possession of the Hayne family.

Kensington, in the Acton area, situated on a high bluff overlooking the Wateree River, stands on land which was originally known as Headquarters, one of six plantations owned by Colonel Richard Singleton (1776-1852), the father of Matthew Richard Singleton (1811-1854) who was the builder of When on February 28, 1844, Mathew Richard Singleton married Martha Rutledge, daughter of Frederick and Mary ….(Lowndes Kinloch at Kensington, the bride’s home near Georgetown, the Singleton’s changed the name of Headquarter’s Plantation to Kensington. The palatial home is unique for this section. Its design shows a strong influence of the Italian Villa style and even Second Empire design. On the front is a porte-cochere, the roof of which is supported by four large columns with Roman arches. These columns or pilasters with half capitals, having the design of carved rams’ heads, were in honor of the first sheep raised in the State. Steep steps lead to the entrance where a massive mahogany door is set between side lights of imported glass. The door is topped by the family coat of arms carved in the door frame. There is a basement under the entire house where storage rooms, a cistern for rainwater, a well for cooling milk and other perishables were located.

On the first floor was the entrance hall, lighted from the glass dome, three stories above, several spacious rooms and a great dining hall across the back of the house. The ceilings of the halls and rooms were beautifully decorated with carved cornices and chandelier medallions. Niches were placed for statuary and flower boxes and mirrors were at appropriate spots. When Mathew Richard Singleton died in 1854 at the age of thirty-seven, the house had not been completed, but Mrs. Singleton and her three children continued to live there.

In February, 1865, when Sherman’s men marched through this section the home was spared and today it is still standing though unoccupied. Colonel Singleton’s home called simply Home Place was built near Manchester in Sumter District. It was on November 27, 1838, that his youngest daughter, Angelica was married to Abram Van Buren, eldest son of President Martin Van Buren. It is a matter of interest that the President attended his son as best man.

The Pines which was the summer home of Colonel Richard Singleton (1851-1921) in the Sand Hills is almost a hundred years old. A comfortable, large cottage-type house with broad piazzas, it has a wide hall which runs the length of the house. The hall was used as a dancing school for the Singleton children and their friends. It is now the year-around home of Mrs. Benson S. Shoolbred.

Goodwill, in the Eastover area, the plantation formerly owned by Edward Brevard Heyward (1826-1871), was originally the property of several early settlers. Dr. E. L. Green in the History of Richland County, refers to a plat of Goodwill made November 23, 1857, by John N. Barrillon on which there is an annotation Old Settlement, on lands belonging to John Evans. James Cook, who took land on Colonel’s Creek, was one of the owners of a tract of land that later became a part of the plantation. Edward Brevard Heyward (1826-1871), the father of Duncan Clinch Heyward, purchased the plantation before the death of his first wife, Lucy Izard Heyward (1833-1858). Several years after her death he married Catherine Maria Clinch.

Besides their home at Goodwill, they owned Nutshell, it was at Nutshell, a simple cottage, probably built the early part of the nineteenth century, that their son Duncan Clinch Heyward, who was later to become governor of South Carolina (1903- a summer place in the Sand Hills. 1907), This house is still standing and is the home of Mrs. Tom Price. In 1862 the slaves left on the Heyward low-country plantation were moved to Goodwill. Traveling by train from Charleston to Gadsden Station, they were met by wagons which carried those unable to walk the eleven miles to the plantation. They were given homes that had been prepared for them. Goodwill – In later years the plantation became the property of Samuel Buchanan McMaster of Columbia and is now owned by Mrs. McMaster. Goodwill is sometimes referred to as Half Way Hill as it lies approximately half the distance from Columbia to Sumter.

Cook’s Mountain was named for the Tory Captain James Cook, who received a royal grant for four hundred acres in 1770. In 1932 William Spencer Murray of New York (for whom Lake Murray on the Saluda River above Columbia is named), acquired a tract of land of about eight thousand acres including Cook’s Mountain. On his property he built a comfortable one-story house and a studio for Mrs. Murray and he had a dam and power plant constructed on Mountain. He developed it as his private estate, calling it Bohemian Manor. There are two possible explanations for the name; he may have been thinking of the mountains in the countries of Bohemia and Bavaria or because of the fact that his wife was an artist, he may have selected it as typifying an informal artistic retreat.

Laurelwood, a two-story colonial house with broad piazzas is situated about four miles north of Eastover, near the old Garner’s Ferry Road. It was built about 3850 by James H. Seay, who was a minister. Named by the present owners, the family of Jasper Hamilton Campbell who acquired it about 1900, Laurelwood appropriately describes the beautiful Kalmia that bloom here in the springtime.

Highfields near Eastover was the home and plantation of Jesse Killingsworth (1770-1856), who came into Lower Richland late in the eighteenth century. From the site of the house which burned in 1935 one can see into Calhoun and Orangeburg Counties—hence the name High- fields. On the edge of the property is the handsome table-like monument covering the grave of the original owner. It seems that Jesse Killingsworth was so annoyed by people stealing nuts from a huge walnut tree that stood on the property that he expressed the wish to be buried under the tree where his ghost would rise up to drive away the thieves. This property was bought by Benson S. Shoolbred and here he and his family lived for many years.

Bellaire, about two miles from Eastover, was the handsome home and the plantation of William Bynum, the son of Drury Bynum (d. 1837) who settled in the Fork soon after the Revolution. The original house which is still standing is a two-story house with broad piazzas on both floors. A large dining hall is in the English basement. Drury Bynum’s grave is on a part of this plantation known as the Shiver Place. Ann Bynum, the daughter of William Bynum, married Robert Joel Adams (1820-1848), son of Joel Adams II (1784-1859); and in 1867 their daughter, Fannie Adams, married John Stanyarn Shoolbred.

The Brevard House later known as Alwehav was the Sand Hills home of Mrs. Keziah Goodwyn Hopkins Brevard. It was built in the early part of the nineteenth century by James Hopkins (1773-1844) on a Spring that flows into Tom’s Creek. The plantation which originally consisted of eighteen hundred acres is now owned by Mr. Louis LeConte. The house is a lovely example of a Classic Revival one-story house with a handsomely detailed portico. William Clarkson did not come into Lower Richland until after 1800, at which time he commenced buying lands. He built his home Broadacres on the edge of the Sand Hills. It is a lovely Classic Revival house Beverly Hills, built by Henry Scott Garner, is located in the Sand Hills. A one-story cottage said to be over a hundred years old, it has been the home of the Dwight family for many years. No explanation has been found for its name. with a beautifully detailed portico, having large piazzas and a spacious living room on the first floor. Through the years it has changed hands a number of times and now is owned by the descendants of Mr. and Mrs. Phil Freeman.

The Scott Plantation, situated between Congaree and Gadsden known as Whitehall, was formerly the property of William Scott, a Revolutionary soldier who served with General Thomas Sumter in 1780 and 1781, and whose daughter, Ann Scott, became the wife of James Hopkins Adams (1812-1861). Whitehall is a handsome Colonial home with English basement and the large piazzas on the first and second floors are typical of the plantation homes of the eighteenth century. It has been entirely remodeled and is now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Frank Threatt.

See #101 for details on the Scott House: Richland County Historical Sites and Structures Report

The Lawrence Scott Place built by his father, John Scott, is a Sand Hills home, named for its original owner. Part of the first log house is still standing and is thought to be at least one hundred and fifty years old.

Another John Scott place in the Sand Hills was in later years owned by a surveyor, “Scutter” Henry. When the Henry family were on an excursion from Wateree to Charleston, the boat blew up, killing two of the Henry girls. They are buried in Good Hope Baptist Churchyard. At night Mrs. Henry’s ghost is said to be seen walking up and down the roadway, looking for her children. This very handsome home was burned about 1925 and the B. A. Krells who own the property have built a comfortable modern home there.

Live Oak, the home and plantation of James Hopkins Adams (1812-1861), was formerly the property of the Howell family, the first of whom, William Howell (d. 1757) came into this section of the county about 1741. Formerly called Woodville by the Howells, it is located approximately a mile from St. John’s, Congaree, on lands where the McEntire Air Base is situated.

When Jesse Malach Howell (b. 1753) a nephew of William Howell, died in 1835 his plantation was bought by Governor Adams.
The Inn at Gadsden known as the Stage Coach Inn became the home of James Uriah Adams (1812-1871) and his wife Sarah Hopkins Adams. He enlarged and remodeled it, making it a very handsome home.

After 1865 it was bought by Glenn Kaminer and then passed into the hands of Harry Kaminer. The house was burned in recent years. On the Old Camden Road near the Wateree Swamp was a house formerly owned by Angelica Singleton Van Buren. Her father Mathew Richard Singleton gave her the large house and it was sold to the Bynum family.

The remains of the slave quarters of the Bynum plantation known as Bynum Street can still be located. The large house burned some years ago.

The Raft, situated near the fork of the Congaree and Wateree Rivers, was so named because of the raft of trees that were being constantly removed from the river. It was the home and plantation of Alexander Garden Clarkson (1854-1924) and his family, situated near the fork of the Wateree and Congaree Rivers. The house, a one-story cottage- type dwelling, was probably built by Mrs. Amelia Clarkson.

Middleburg, the adjoining plantation, was also owned by the Clarksons. In the Sand Hills is a large two-story house which is another home of the Alexander Garden Clarkson family. This house is said to have been moved from the Middleburg plantation.

Garner’s Inn, a stagecoach inn, where travelers stopped on their way to the Ferry to be carried across the Wateree River by John Garner, was a quaint old place. Recently it has been torn down but a picture shows it as a large building, having four rooms on the first floor and two rooms connected by porches on the second floor. A descendant of the first family who owned the Inn says that it originally belonged to the Walker and Gregory families. Walker Springs, a place where picnics have been frequently held, is on the place.

James Trumble (1824-1890) of Liverpool, England, came into the Wateree section around 1850 and built a home on The Oaks Plantation which he acquired. Besides a nice home he built a number of small houses for his slaves. The house was burned some years ago and was replaced by an attractive Victorian cottage, which is now the home of Dr. and Mrs. Harry H. Turney-High. Some of the former slave houses can be seen from the roadway; at least one of these is built of logs. —CORNELIA H. HENSLEY

(Information from: Names in South Carolina by C.H. Neuffer, Published by the S.C. Dept. of English, USC)

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