USA > South Carolina > Historic houses of South Carolina > Part 12
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"Fairnfield" (Friendfield) in 1872, belonging to the late Joseph Alston, Esq., was advertised as consisting of the fol- lowing tracts of land, containing rice, pine, marsh and swamp lands; Marietta, Strawberry Hill, Fairnfield, Marsh Island, Michaux's Point, Calais, and Clegg's Point; all lying contigu- ous to each other, forming a peninsula with the Waccamaw River on the west, and the Atlantic Ocean or its water on the east. "A single fence from 2 to 3 miles across the peninsula will enclose the entire tract."
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FRIENDFRID NEAR GEORGETOWN. THE WITHERS HOME
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GEORGETOWN AND VICINITY
Cherokee, another Allston place, was the plantation of Gov- ernor K. H. W. Allston, and was inherited from his grand- father, Benj. Allston. The former was Governor of South Carolina in 1857 and 1858. The plantation contains nearly 900 aeros, and there stands on it a house in perfect order after all the intervening years from the time of its construction, on a very beautiful point overlooking the Pee Dee River, the front piazza commanding a view of "a beautiful bend, the glimmer- ing waters framed by dark oak branches." Cherokee is two miles from a white neighbor, and eight from Casa Bianca, the Poinsette-Pringle place. It was afterwards bought by the daughter of Governor Allston, who says, "with my horses, my dogs, my book and piano my life has been a very full one." She speaks of going to church in "our little pineland village," dining in the summer house, and then "driving in" to Hasty Point, which is named from Marion's hasty escape during the Revolution from the British officers.
Mention must be made. in writing, of the Allston family, of that distinguished artist, Washington Allston, one of the great- est of the pupils of Benjamin West, whose painting, "A Span- ish Girl." is one of the intaglio-gravure pictures illustrating "Makers of American Art." Several years of his active life were spent in England, but he was a native American, having been born in the Waccamaw region of South Carolina in 1779. His father died when the artist was two years old, and when he was seven his mother married Dr. Henry C. Flagg, of New- port, chief of the medical staff of General Greene's army dur- ing the Revolution,
After graduating at Harvard in 1800 he studied art for a time in Charles Town with Malbone, the particular friend of Allston during his entire life, who in after years became known as Edward G. Malbone, a noted miniature painter. They went to London together, and Allston entered the Royal Academy, where he became a pupil of West's. He developed greatly in poetic and religious fields as well as in art, and the most cele- brated of his paintings are of a religious nature. After spend- ing many years abroad he returned to America about 1818 and spent the remainder of his life, until 1843. in Boston and
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Cambridge. In prominent galleries of both England and ---- America his paintings are hung.
CASA BIANCA OR WHITE HOUSE
Casa Bianca, the home of the famous Joel Poinsett, stood on the point of land between the Pee Dee and Black Rivers, eight miles south of Chicora. This was acquired by Mr. Poin- sett through marriage with the widow of John Julius Pringle, formerly a Miss Izard, who spent her summers in Newport and her winters in Washington. She was a woman of charm and originality, and is said to have introduced in New York the fashion of wearing small, live snakes as bracelets at the opera. That the Izard women were always remarkable is shown by the celebrated witticism passed in Washington on one of them by a lady who declared, in speaking of the Bee and Izard fam- ilies that they were "a proud lot from B to Z."
In connection with these aristocratic people, it is of in- terest that Mary Pringle, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Julius Izard Pringle, whose mother was a Miss Lynch, and whose home was Greenfield, on Black River, several miles southwest of Chicora Wood, married into nobility, her husband being Count Yvan des Francs. Another family place was Wey- mouth, on Pee Dee River, six miles south of Chicora, the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Izard, the latter having been a Miss Pinckney.
A complete history of Casa Bianca is found in "A Woman Rice Planter, " by " Patience Pennington." The life of the South Santee region is given in detail, and she describes in her own inimitable way the life on the rice plantations ; telling of the negroes, their loves, hates, works and plays; of teach- ing the little children, and of the birds, beasts and flowers of Casa Bianca, where she spent her short married life. The tract consisted of 200 acres, which she afterwards bought.
Joel Poinsett was a Charlestonian of national, or even in- ternational reputation. His home had always been in the city of Charleston until his retirement from public life. A local notice in a Charleston paper in 1732 mentions his father in au account of the celebration of St. George's Day by the "Fort
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THE DRAWING ROOM, FRIENDMIELO HOUSE, SHOWING PICTURE WALL PAPER From a print
GEORGETOWN AND VICINITY
Jolly Volunteers" at the "House of Trooper Pointsett, their usual House of Rendezvous." The son's residence was situ- ated upon what is now Rutledge Avenue, a few squares above Calhoun Street on the east side. The house was a plain wooden one with columns in front, having somewhat the exterior ap- pearance of a small church. It was recessed some distance from the street, and stood in the midst of a grove of live oaks; it was generally known as "Poinsett's Grove," and had prob- ably been a farm before the city limits extended so far.
Mr. Poinsett had traveled much, and had observed in the cities of Europe the great usefulness of galleries of paintings and statnes, their improvement and elevation of the tastes of the people, and with the hope of starting such an institution in Charleston he obtained land on Broad Street west of Logan, from the Methodist Church as the site of his proposed "Acad- emy of Fine Arts." This was done in 1833, and he also got pictures and statues. If Mr. Poinsett's plan was not per- manently successful it was at least a great step forward, and is now realized in the Gibbes Memorial Art Gallery on Meeting Street.
He married, as has been said, Mrs. John Julius Pringle, who owned a valuable rice plantation near Georgetown, and there, for the rest of his days, he passed the winters, some of his summers being spent in Greenville, S. C., where they also owned a farm, and for the fall months they sometimes went North.
Mr. Poinsett was rewarded for his great interest in science by having a beautiful flower named for him. It was described by two botanists. Wildenow and Graham, without its being known exactly which one had priority. The first called Euphorbia pulcherrima, and the second Poinsettea pulcher- rima. It belongs to the family of Euphorbiacæ ; is a native of Mexico, and was discovered there about the year 1828. It is commonly known, however, as the poinsettia.
The house at Casa Bianca stood on the bank of Black River; a picture of the front porch shows a two and a half story house with a piazza downstairs broken by a wing, and on the right a set-in gable roof over the steps leading out-of-doors. The pitch
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of the roof on the attic is also broken by a gable end fronting directly in the middle of the house. Sturdy chimneys give an air of English rusticity to the whole, which impression is car- ried out by the secluded look given the house by the surround- ing trees. Patience Pennington speaks of it herself as a rambling old house; "even the garret with its ghostly old oil portrait of a whole family in a row and a broken bust of another member." In another place she says: "My predecessor at Casa Bianca was a woman of immense ability and cleverness. She spent much time abroad and was a good friend of the Grand Duke of Weimar to whom she sent an African as a present, he having expressed a desire to have one in his suite ; in spite of war and turmoil, Tom, son of the gardener, was sent. The Grand Duke was delighted with him and treated him with great favor. Tom married the daughter of an 'honorable Councillor' lived happily and died from over exertion made in his efforts to render help when a fire broke out in the palace."
The garden at Casa Bianca was planted by Mr. Poinsett somewhere between 1830 and 1835, He brought many rare plants from Mexico, among others the gorgeous "Flor-de la Noche Buena" which in this country bears the name Poinsettia in his honor. There is very little left of the original garden, only the camelia bushes, the olia fragrans, Magnolia purpuria and Pyrus Japonica. The cloth of gold, Lamarque, and other roses grew rampantly, but visitors here have almost destroyed them, as they have the hedge of azaleas.
NORTH ISLAND AND THE HUGERS
An account of the Huger family has been given in connec- tion with Limerick plantation on the Cooper River; a quaint old entry in the records of the State says :
"PM August th 12th 1697
This Day Came Daniell Huger of Sante Planter & record his mark of Cattell & hoggs &e : followeth, the left veare Cropt the other with an under & upper Keele, his brand mark as (here the device is drawn) margent."
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Johnson's " Traditions and Reminiscences of the American Revolution" relate a most interesting event which transpired in 1777 while Major Huger was residing on his plantation near Georgetown. He was visited by two strangers, neither of whom could speak English, and having spoken French from his childhood, Major Huger invited them into his family circle. They appeared to be men of distinction, and told him that they had left France to visit America and had been put ashore near Georgetown, on North Island, wishing to proceed northwardly. One of them announced himself as the Marquis de LaFayette, the other as Baron von Steuben. They were hospitably enter- tained by Major Huger, introduced to his neighbors and friends, and then conveyed, in his own equipage, to Charleston, where they were well taken care of by the Governor and Couneil, and provision made for their journey to Philadelphia.
At the time of Provost's invasion, Major Huger and his family "lived in the enjoyment of ease, health and honor, in an elegant establishment, with all the enjoyments of do- mestic and social happiness. When he accepted the commis- sion in the newly raised regiment, he had no earthly motive for thus devoting himself to the public service, but love of country, and his sense of duty to defend her dearest rights." He fell in executing his duty, having been Major of the second regi- ment of riflemen, in the Provincial service, his commission dated the 17th day of June, 1775.
This Major Benjamin Huger was the fifth son of Daniel TIuger, a direct descendant of the Huguenot, Daniel Huger. In the cultivation of rice his father had prospered, and gave his numerous family all the advantages of education that America afforded, sending his sons in succession to Europe for the tour which was then considered indispensable to a com- pleto education. They all profited by their opportunities, returning courteous and polished gentlemen, who at the com- mouvement of the Revolution united with great cordiality in support of the American rights. John Huger was elected, by the Provincial Congress, a member of the council of safety, associated with Miles Brewton, Thomas Heyward, Arthur Middleton, and others, Henry Laurens being the President.
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John Huger was afterwards Secretary of State. Isaac Huger was elected Lieutenant-Colonel of the first regiment; Daniel Huger was for several years a member of the Continental Con- gress; Francis Huger was elected quartermaster-general, and Benjamin Huger Major of the second regiment.
Major Huger's widow, a sister of Francis and Cleland Kinloch, lived to see her children well educated, married and honored. Her daughter married the Hon. Hugh Rutledge, chancellor of South Carolina; her oldest son, Benjamin, mar- ried the widow of Thomas Allston, and was many years a delegate to Congress from his own district, Georgetown; and her youngest son, after his daring enterprise to rescue LaFayette from the prison of Olmutz, was commissioned col- onel of artillery, married a daughter of General Thomas Pinckney, and held the commission of adjutant general in his division of the Southern army in the War of 1812, against Great Britain.
At North Island, in Georgetown County, is erected a stone to mark the spot where LaFayette landed when he first came to this country to offer his service to the Continental Army. This enthusiastic young Frenchman who gave his services to the United States in their arduous struggle for independence, is now named in the history of South Carolina.
Farther up Winyah Bay from North Island is a plantation now owned by Mr. Bernard Baruch, a distinguished financier, whose father is a noted physician of New York, who originally came from Camden, S. C. Mr. Baruch's property is believed to have been one of the old Huger or Alston places, and indeed thought to be the place where LaFayette made his first landing at North Island.
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CHAPTER VII
UPPER, LOWER AND MIDDLE ST. JOHN'S AND ST. STEPHEN'S
ST. JOHN'S BERKELEY
HIS parish was incorporated by the Church Act of 1706, but previously had many residents. The French settlers removed hither from French Santee and Orange Quarter, and it appears that as early as 1707 these people banded them- selves together into a small congrega- tion and in 1710 built themselves a church and called a minister.
"It is known from tradition," says Huguenot Transac- tions No. 7, "that this church was a small wooden building that stood a little east of the place now known as Simpson's Basin on the Santee Canal, about Midway between the present Biggin and Black Oak churches." The use of the church by the French was not continued. From Mr. Chastaigner's will we learn that after discontinuing the use of the church they held worship at Pooshee, a plantation owned by the Emigrant René Ravenel.
Concerning the plate owned by this church, Dr. Dalcho says:
"The Sacramental Plate, with the exception of the French Chalice, was, probably, purchased by the Parish. It has the following inscription on each piece : St. John's Parish, South- Carolina in America.
"A Chalice of Silver, gilt, was presented to the Parish. It had been used by the Protestants in France before the revoca- tion of the Edict of Nantz, and was brought to Carolina by the Rev. Mr. Lessou, formerly Minister of a French congre- gation in this Province."
When the Parish of St. Stephen's became the resort of the descendants of the French, chiefly from French Santee, bo-
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cause of the freshets on that river, Upper, and Middle St. John's Berkeley became settled by some of the same people for the same reason. It is a strange thing to note that there are three very arbitrary divisions of St. John's, not easy for an outsider to understand. These divisions are known as Upper, Middle and Lower St. John's.
No more puzzling occupation can be devised than to cor- rectly place the different families of the same name in their correct places. Suffice it to say, that the settlement in Upper St. John's was called Eutawville, where several houses are still found, and which will be discussed later; Middle St. John's settlement is called Pinopolis, here is found a Cain house, Somerset, a fair type of a St. John's plantation home in the nineteenth century. The roof of the house is slate. In Lower St. John's were the summer settlements of The Barrows and Cordesville.
The Cordes were another well-known family connected with this inland section of South Carolina. About the year 1665 Anthony Cordes, un medecin, arrived in the colony and resided on the French Santee, afterwards St. John's Berkeley, where he died in 1712. He came with the French emigrants, and is supposed to have accompanied them as their physician. His home was Cordesville. There was another Cordes place called Upton, but the homestead of this family was Yaughan, the residence of an ardent patriot who contrived during the Revolution to vastly annoy the British. Curriboo was the home of Thomas C. Cordes, who married Rebecca Jamieson. One of their daughters married Jonathan Lucas, Jr., and went to live in England. Milford, north of Blufort, was formerly the residence of Isaac DuBose, who sold it to Samuel Cordes; the latter also owned The Lane plantation.
What is said concerning the type of house in St. Stephen's Parish applies also to the houses in the three St. John's, Per- haps, however, the furnishings of the houses in St. John's were a little more elaborate than those in St. Stephen's, and in order to give a general idea of what was found in the old-time houses a few distinctive items will be mentioned.
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"SOMERSET," THE CAIN HOUSE, PINOPOLIS
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For illumination candles and lamps were used, the former being made on the plantations from the wax of the bay or myrtleberry plants. The lamps had bases of pressed glass, and bowls of cut glass. The wick attached to a double jet shows that a very volatile oil was used, probably spirit oil or alcohol. They were originally used with whale oil, and in many places the people burnt hog-lard. The crystal candle- sticks of the period were made with marble bases, the sticks being of bronze, and glistening crystal pendants . surrounded each individual candle-holder. On the hall table of every old establishment were kept the brightly polished brass candle- sticks for the guests to take upstairs upon retiring.
The rooms in olden days, in these historic dwellings, were bright and cheerful and colorful. The artistically woven "carpets" were coverings for tables and bureaus, as well as for the floors. In summer the floor coverings were painted rugs, somewhat resembling our modern linoleum, and some were highly decorative. The owners took great pride in these. The corner cupboards which came into fashion about 1710 were considered as much a part of the house as the windows or the mantels. Many of the old houses with commonplace ex- teriors contained handsome marble mantelpieces, and rare old pieces of English and French furniture.
Persons familiar with the history of furniture in America would find in these old houses a perfect wealth of such belong- ings. There were sofas and settees, sometimes with cane seats ; chairs decorated in French imitation of Chinese flower sprays ; figures on fans from France ; "what-nots" holding in- teresting bits collected by travelers ; and many convex mirrors, with candlesticks attached. Among the most interesting things about these old houses are the enormous locks and large keys which were part of the defence.
Such furnishings were made possible by the wealth of the inhabitants, one of whom was Peter. an ancestor of the present Sinkler family. He died in Charleston, a prisoner of the Brit- ish. Before he was carried from his plantation near Eutaw- ville he witnessed the destruction of the following property ; "twenty thousand pounds of indigo, one hundred and thirty
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head of cattle, one hundred and fifty-four head of sheep, two hundred head of hogs, three thousand bushels of grain, twenty thousand rails, and household furniture valued at £2500"; in addition to which the British carried off 55 negroes, 16 blood horses and 28 mares and colts.
Referring to personal belongings, the writer's mother, Susan DeSaussure, remembers when the ladies of this neigh- borhood wore the old-fashioned Caleche, or "ugly," silk shirred, and worn around the front of poke bonnets to protect the face from the sun. They were fashioned in the Fifties. and somewhat resembled little buggy tops. Each different costume had a corresponding caleche. The ladies of that day carefully cherished their complexions.
Besides the Sinklers, the Mazycks, Porchers, Palmers, Ravenels, Cordes, Marions, Dwights, Gailliards and Gourdins were found as original Huguenot settlers of St. John's. It is almost impossible to untangle these families, and anyone who is interested may read "Olden Times of Carolina, " "Ram- sey's Sketch of St. Stephen's Parish," Mr. Isaac Porcher's article on this section, or Samuel DuBose's "Reminiscences of St. Stephen's Parish." For instance, Mr. Mazyck Porcher, Carolina's Bourbon, lived at Mexico plantation, his grand- father, Peter Porcher, owned plantations called Peru, Ophir and Mexico. He lived at Peru and would often leave his home in the morning, ride to Ophir, a distance of 15 miles, thence to Mexico 12 miles, and back to Peru 10 miles, all in the same day. All of these men were fond of manly sports and in the Revolu- tion Marion and Moultrie depended on them. In the struggle for American independence these men made fine cavalrymen. A few of the plantations upon which houses are still standing will be briefly discussed.
Old Field plantation was owned by Philip Porcher, who died in 1800. He paid taxes on over one-half million dollars worth of property, and had 464 slaves ; among other real estate was a house in Archdale Street in Charleston, then a fashion- able thoroughfare. Another Porcher residence was Indian- field, at which the semi-annual meeting of the St. John's Hunt-
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ing Club is sometimes held even now. Massive moss-draped trees and beautiful lawns mark this romantic spot.
Dr. Isaac Porcher, the Huguenot emigrant, came to this country from the Province of Sainte Severe, France. He is described (Burke's Peerage ) as being Isaac Porcher de Richel- bourg, doctor of medicine of the University of Paris, who married a Cherigny, of the Province of Touraine. Burke's account is incorrect, as has been proved by Mrs. Julia Porcher Wiekham, a lineal descendant of Isaac Porcher. Mrs. Wick- ham made a pilgrimage to France to establish certain facts in connection with the Porcher family. Dr. Robert Wilson, President of the Huguenot Society in 1910, has also written much concerning Isaac Porcher. He states his ability to give with positiveness the origin of Dr. Porcher, from an old manu- script found years ago at Ophir plantation in St. John's Berkeley, which runs as follows:
"Isaac Porcher, né a St'e-Sévére en Beny, fils de Isaac Porcher et de Susanne Ferré. Isaac, Pierre, Elizabeth, Made- leine, et Claude, leurs enfants."
The cmigrant's bible, which is still owned by his descend- ants of the pure Huguenot blood in St. John's, at Indianfield. contains on the flyleaf the notice of his wife's death written and signed by the emigrant himself; the date of this bible being 1707.
The refugee and his wife lived for some time in London, as records of the baptism of two of his children there prove, but he soon emigrated, and we find from an old document that he was in Charleston in the year 1687. He settled on land not far from Goose Creek where, in the old Huguenot cemetery there, his body is supposed to have been laid.
Further enumeration of the history of the family in France would reveal much of the internal history of that country, as the French branch of the Porchers was concerned with all the great affairs of that time. The history of Abbe Porcher de Lissaunay is closely connected with the Château of Cote Per- drix, near Sainte-Sévére, the only Porcher home in the old world of which we have any description. Mrs. Wickham wrote
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an account of this place which has been published in the "Transactions of the Huguenot Society."
The last historic owner of "Peru" was Peter Porcher, whose fourth child, Major Samuel Porcher, had his plantation at Mexico, and married Harriot, daughter of Philip Porcher. At the time of the Civil War Mexico was owned by Mazyck Porcher, whom Mr. Yates Snowden has immortalized as "The Carolina Bourbon" in his poem of that name. A Missionary Tour to Upper St. John's and St. Stephen's says :
"We drove towards Mexico, an old family place now the residence of Mr. M. P. The ground about the house is much more broken than usual, its slopes being studded with fine trees, oaks and cedars; while the Santee Canal with its hedges and locks gives variety to the scene."
During the days of the stage-coach Hugh Legare often visited at the home of Philip Porcher, who had been his great chum at college. The house, which still stands, was built in 1812 by slave labor, and is of black cypress, the timber having been cut on the place. Its roof is of air-dried cypress or long- leaf pine shingles. It is called a double-story house, and stands on a nine-foot brick foundation the pillars of which are about six by three feet. The bricks were had from a brick kiln on the plantation; the hole where the clay was dug can still be seen on the edge of the woods. The interior decorations were done by a slave called Black Washington.
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