USA > South Carolina > Historic houses of South Carolina > Part 15
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MIDWAY
The house on the " Midway" estate was a large one and was built by Captain John Singleton, who received the house as a wedding gift from his father, Matthew Singleton. It was named Midway because it lay midway between Melrose and Home Place, two other of the Singleton plantations. On either end of the house a large room was added the width of the house, the two being connected by a passageway. Tradition has it that Captain Singleton took great pleasure in entertaining members of the Legislature, who passed the house on horse- back during Christmas holidays.
John Singleton married Rebecca Richardson, daughter of General Richardson. She was the widow of a Mr. Cooper, a man whom she had married at the age of sixteen, against the wishes of her father. Mary Singleton, daughter of John and Rebecca Singleton, married George MeDuffie in 1829. Mc- Duffie was left a widower with one child a year later. This child became the wife of Wade Hampton, Governor of South Carolina. Although George MeDuffie died at the Singleton home, he owned a house called "Cherry Hill" in Abbeville District. McDuffie was one of the most brilliant orators of South Carolina. He was Governor of the State in 1834 and was a member of the United States Senate in 1842. Mr. Mc- Duffie was never strong after his duel with Colonel Cunning- ham in 1820, but he did not die until 1851.
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SINGLETON HALL
Irving, in his "History of the Turf in South Carolina," says that "Home Place" or "Singleton Hall" is situated on the line of the Charleston and Camden turnpike, which is skirted for many miles in front of the estate by a beautiful hawthorn hedge, the growth of many years. Fronting the house is a park of nearly fifty acres, with fine forest trees laid out in lines radiating from it to the public road. Nothing can surpass the picturesque beauty and effect of the partial views obtained through the vista of the trees of the massive columns which support the entablature of this splendid mansion, as seen from a distance. The approach to it is up through a broad avenue shielded on either side by "brave old oaks." Within this park the training course is laid out, an exact mile in cir- cuit, so that the horses may be seen taking their exercise. One straight side of the course running parallel with the house is so near that orders can be given the trainers or jockies from the piazza.
"The racing stables are situated immediately in the rear of the house, with the paddocks on either side. Everything is substantially built and in perfect order, and there is no want of room, or convenience of any kind, manifest in the details.
"The elegant and refined hospitality of Singleton Hall, a noble mansion, as eminent for its beauty and the taste with which the extensive grounds are laid out, as for the courtesy and considerate kindness which characterizes the proprietor. Aside from the interest with which we regard this princely estate from its great extent, its high state of cultivation, the perfect order and good taste so apparent in its minutest de- tails, and the associations connected with it as the time-honored seat of the distinguished family of its present owner, it had a peculiar charm as being the nearest approach to an American idea of the residence of
" 'The fine old English Gentleman All of the olden time.' "
The house at "Home Place" (or as it was later called Singleton Hall), was built by Richard Singleton, son of John
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and grandson of Matthew Singleton. He was a man of ample means and entertained royally. It is said that it took him two hours to dress in the morning, and that while he was adjusting his cravat and combing his hair, a la pompador, his wife read the Bible and newspapers to him. Upon being twitted by his neighbors for being late to business, he replied, "It did not matter when you started, but what you did after starting." He was evidently a man of strong personality and was loved by all who knew him.
Richard Singleton owned several other plantations in addi- tion to Home Place, among them were Gilman's ; Headquarters or Kensington, near the Acton station; The Fork; Scott; Gadsen; and True Blue, the name of the latter having been derived from the fact that this was once an indigo plantation.
"Home Place" was the scene of the marriage of Angelica Singleton, daughter of Richard, to Col. Abram Van Buren, son of President Van Buren. At this wedding the rare and beauti- ful Singleton silver was used, as was also the glass and china. It is said that Richard Singleton was the first to introduce silver forks in the family, and that the children always spoke of them as "Uncle Singleton's Split Spoons."
The following interesting story is told of how Angelica Singleton met her husband; "To complete her education, as was fitting her station, she was sent to school to Mme. Gre- land's in Philadelphia. In 1827 she spent a portion of her holiday in Washington with her kinswoman, Mrs. Dolly Madison, who took pleasure in introducing her to President Van Buren. As she was a girl of rare beauty and charm, she at once became a reigning belle and one year later was married from her home 'Home Place,' to Major Abram Van Buren, eldest son of the President, a graduate of West Point, an officer in the army, and who at the time was acting as his father's private secretary, Mrs. Van Buren made her appearance as mistress of the White House on New Year's Day, shortly after her marriage (1838). The newspapers of the day spoke of her as bearing the fatigue of the three house levee with patience and pleasantry which must have been inexhaustible." Mrs. Van Buren was a very beautiful woman, a portrait of her shows
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her with her hair piled high, bunches of curls clustered on each side of her face, and a number of ostrich feathers towering above all this. Her descendant, Mrs. Helen Coles Singleton Green, of Columbia, possesses many interesting relies of her distinguished ancestress.
"Kensington" or "Headquarters," was willed by Richard Singleton to his son Matthew, who built a home there, which is now one of the handsomest places in Richland County. It was saved during the Civil War by the intrepid and courage- ous appeal of Mrs. Singleton's mother to a young northern soldier who had been sent to fire the building. She saved the home and possibly the life of the youth, as Hampton's Scouts heard of the proposed burning and came riding hard upon the heels of the would-be incendiary. The house is built in the shape of a cross, with wings on either end and the wing in the rear being balanced by a porte cochere extending from the roof of the front porch.
Matthew Singleton is described as being "a spirited and accomplished young gentleman, who inherits a large portion of his father's taste for fine horses, and who, we trust, will one day succeed him on the Turf. " As Halsey children will in- herit Singleton trophies, brief extracts concerning their paternal ancestry are given.
Thomas Olney, the ancestor of the Olneys in America, had his birthplace in Hertford, Hertfordshire, England. He received a permit to emigrate to New England April 2nd, 1635, and came to Salem, Mass., by the ship Planter. In January, 1636, he was appointed a surveyor, and granted 40 acres of land at Jeffrey Creek, now known as Manchester, near Salem. He was made a freeman the same year and early associated with those who accepted the peculiar views of Roger Williams. With a number of others he was excluded from the colony March 12th, 1638, and with Roger Williams and eleven others formed a new settlement at the head of Narragansett Bay which they named Providence, in grateful remembrance of their deliverance from their enemies. They thus became the "Original Thirteen Proprietors of Providence," having purchased their rights from the Indians.
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George WV. Olney, son of Captain Olney (named for George Washington, under whom his father had served), passed his childhood and early manhood on his father's farm at Provi- dence. After the war of 1812 he made several business ven- tures to Southern ports, which led him to think so favorably of Charleston, S. C., that he made it his permanent home. His wife was Olive Bartlett, of Williamstown, Mass., and their daughter, Maria, married Capt. E. L. Halsey in 1870.
Concerning Captain Halsey's ancestors we find among the records of the town of Lynn, Mass., which have survived a fire, that in 1668 Thomas Halsey was allotted one hundred acres of land. His coming to America was apparently connected with the colonization enterprizes of which John Winthrop became leader. In the history of New England from 1630 to 1649 Halsey's name is mentioned frequently in connection with the religious upheaval in the colony at the time.
Captain and Mrs. Halsey had a large family, members of which are now identified with Charleston's social and business life. One of the sons, Leroy Halsey, married Decca Coles Singleton, who has in her possession a decanter which was used at Melrose plantation, Sumter County, in 1760, and later was in use at Midway, then at Home Place and Black Woods, all of which were plantations of the Singleton family.
ON THE ROAD TO STATEBURG AFTER LEAVING THE SINGLETON ESTATES
After leaving Wedgefield, on the road to Stateburg, the following houses are found: The first is Argyle, recently the home of Miss Mary McLaurin, where General Greene had his headquarters just before the battle of Eutawville. Number two is found on the same side of the road, the right, and is known by the name of The Oaks. It is a tall wooden house set on a hill quite a distance back from the public road, which forms a fine approach to the structure and sets off the colonial portico that adorns the façade of this building. The house has fine woodwork inside, although very plain.
The situation of this home is particularly interesting, as it is built on the crest of a hill on the watershed of the Santee and
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Black Rivers, the waters from the front flowing west to the Santee, and those from the back draining east to the Black River. Mr. Screven Moore now owns this property, the house having been built either by a Bracey or a James, probably the latter, as the place was once known as James Hill, but has since been changed to The Oaks.
The next house above The Oaks is built in the same style, set on a high brick foundation with two stories above, and belongs to Mr. William Flood. In the vicinity of these three houses already mentioned, and on the other side of the road, was the old Richardson house, at which Dictator Rutledge stayed when he made his quarters in the high hills of Santee. This place is called Bloomhill, and is now in the possession of Mr. Thomas Richardson, Judge of the Probate Court, Sum- ter, S. C .; Mrs. Mary Ellen Alexander, and Mrs. H. Pinckney.
Continuing the journey from Wedgefield north, there is a very interesting house north of the Flood place which was, for many years, the home of the Reese family. It is a mellow old house, placed close to the ground, the lower rooms being used by the family as living-rooms.
A little above the Reese house comes in the road from Sumter. Upon this road about six miles distant are found the residences of the Nelsons, Andersons and Friersons, a portion of the Frierson place being a very old house. The place is known by the name of Cherry Dale. The Frierson family came to South Carolina about 1730 and formed a part of the Scotch-Irish settlement in Williamsburg Township. One of the locks of the Santee Canal bears the name of John Frier- son. Mr. James Nelson Frierson, recently elected dean of the University of South Carolina Law School, is a grandson of the builder of Cherry Dale.
Leaving Cherry Dale and returning toward Stateburg, on the right-hand side of the road is found the Reynolds house, for many years the home of Mr. Mark Reynolds, of Sumter Bar. The parsonage intervenes here, a bleak old wooden house set on a bare hillside. while to the west of the place stands the home which goes by the name of The Ruins, which place very much resembles Hopseewee in general appearance. It is the
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home of the Pinckney family, Mrs. Marion De Veaux Pinckney being the present owner. Mr. Harry Pinckney, a member of this family, was also the owner of a handsome old house in Stateburg neighborhood, which he left to his godson, Ioor Tupper. This house was built by Colonel John Russell Spann, who married the widow Broun (originally Harriet Richardson Singleton). Mr. Pinckney inherited the property through the Spann connection.
This brings us again to the Camden road, and at this june- ture the Church of the Holy Cross is found, opposite which is Hill Crest, the home of the Anderson family. Beyond Hill Crest and the church are the following plantations, none of the buildings on which, however, possess any historical interest. They are as follows: Marston, belonging to William Saun- ders; Acton, a Ravenel place ; the house already mentioned as belonging to Mr. Pinckney ; and the plantation of Mr. DeSaus- sure Bull, adjacent to which is found the Bradley house.
Just where the road turns eastwardly from the Bull place going to the Bradley house is the Sebastian Sumter house. Here is to be found a monument erected to General Sumter bearing the following inscription :
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West Side This stone marks the grave of one of South Carolina's most distinguished citizens, THOMAS SUMTER. One of the founders of the Republic. Born in Va., Aug. 14, 1734. Died June 1, 1832.
South Side Erected by the General Assembly of S. C. 1907.
East Side He came to South Carolina about 1760 and was in the Indian Service on the Frontier for several years before settling as a planter in this vicinity. Commandant of 6th Regt., S. C. Line, Continental Estab., 1776-1778.
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Brig. Gen. S. C. Militia, 1780-1782. Member of Continental Congress, 1783-1784. Member U. S. Congress, 1789-1793, 1797-1801. U. S. Senator, 1801-1810.
North Side Tanto Nomini Nullium Par Elogium.
Beyond the Sebastian Sumter house are a few other old plantations, among which is The Terraces, a Boykin residence, but the house is of no special note. Rembert Hall, in Sumter district, is still standing, and there are also some old, if not antique, houses found in the vicinity of Bradford Springs. St. Philip's Church, at Bradford Springs, St. Mark's Parish, was built in 1843 through the efforts of Mrs. Esther Holbrook, daughter of Theodore Gourdin. Among the contributors were John A. Colcolough, William Burrows, John Bossard, James Gailliard, Porcher Gailliard, Thomas W. Porcher and Charles Sinkler, whose summer homes were in this neighborhood.
HILLCREST
"Hillcrest" is at Stateburg, S. C., and is on the old mail coach road from Charlotte, N. C., to Charleston, S. C., just fifteen miles below Camden. The house is built on the crest of a majestic hill amid a bower of trees and is still in a good state of preservation and replete with associations, relies and legends pertaining to colonial days, the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the war between the States and now sadly connected with the World War, as it was the home of Captain William Harrison Saunders, who was killed in an airplane accident in the fall of 1919. Captain Saunders was an honor graduate of West Point of the class of April, 1917, and went to France in July of that year in the aviation service. He was the first American in observation aviation to go over the German lines on a mission and the first man from our army to be both a pilot and an observer. That he survived this dangerous service is almost a miracle, for the Boches nearly had bim twice. It was while he was at Fort Sill, after his return from France, that he met his tragic death.
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The beautiful sweet-scented gardens at "Hillcrest" are a tangle of shrubs and groups of pyramidal cypress. There one may rest in the portico of the old library, which is a separate building in this garden, or linger beside the old sun dial. There is a large oak on the sloping lawn known as the "Spy Oak" with the girth of two centuries or more and the gnarled "bumps of knowledge" holding fast the secrets of the Tory spies who were hanged from its branches, lending a sinister air to the place. Here Cornwallis established himself, making "Hillcrest" his headquarters while in this vicinity, harassing that gallant and determined band, which, led by the intrepid Sumter (a resident of the high hills of the Santee), carried on their guerilla warfare with such telling effect.
At another period of the Revolutionary War, the American patriot, General Greene was so favorably impressed with the charm and healthfulness of these high hills that he selected this neighborhood in which to encamp his army when rest became necessary, bringing his men here several times to recruit. He made his headquarters on one occasion in this same house which, a short period before, his enemy had appropriated. General Greene left a lasting memorial of his visit by having one of his men brand the opposite doors of the large entrance hall with the letters "C. A." (Continental Army). One of these doors already bore a mark which still remains, which was caused by a blow with the butt end of a musket in the hands of a British soldier during the occupancy of Lord Cornwallis. It was when General Sumter's home in this neighborhood was burned by Tarleton's men that Mrs. Sumter took refuge under the roof of Hillcrest.
Although Hillcrest was for many years the home of the Anderson family and is now in the possession of Mrs. William Saunders (who was before her marriage Katie Anderson), the Revolutionary owners of this historic home were Thomas Hooper, Esq., brother of Wm. Hooper, signer of the Declara- tion of Independence, and Mary Heron Hooper, his wife. Thomas Hooper died in the year 1795 and his wife in 1820. Their niece and adpoted daughter, Mary Jane Mackenzie, was the daughter of Elizabeth Heron and John Mackenzie, of
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"HILLCREST." STATESBURG The Anderson house, now owned by Katic Andersen Saunders
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Scotland. Her maternal grandfather, Benj. Heron, was for twenty years an officer in the royal navy. His fine portfolio of maps bearing the date of 1720 is well preserved among the relics in the Anderson family. At the time of his death, which occurred in 1770, he was one of his majesty's councilors of North Carolina.
Mary Jane Mackenzie was married January 30, 1818, to Dr. Wmn. Wallace Anderson, who was from Montgomery County, Md. He was the son of Col. Richard Anderson of Revolutionary fame and Ann Wallace, whose descent traces back to a brother of the heroic Scotch commander, Sir William Wallace.
Dr. William Wallace Anderson settled at Hillcrest, prac- ticing his profession during a long and honored life. Here was born his sons and his daughters, among whom were General Richard Heron Anderson and Dr. William Wallace Anderson, respectively the ranking officer and the ranking surgeon from South Carolina in the war between the States. Capt. Edward Mackenzie Anderson, another son, was killed in the bloody battle near Williamsburg, May 5th, 1862, while serving as an aid to his brother, General R. H. Anderson.
General Richard Heron Anderson, called "Fighting Dick Anderson, " graduated from the United States Military Acad- emy at West Point, July 1st, 1842. He was then sent to the cavalry school for practice at Carlisle, Pa., where he remained until 1843. In 1850 he married Sarah Gibson, daughter of John B. G. Gibson, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania.
Dr. William Wallace Anderson graduated from the South Carolina College in the class of 1846, and later from the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania in 1849. In 1855 he married Virginia Childs, daughter of Brig. Gen. Thomas Childs, a distinguished officer from Massachusetts.
At Hillcrest died that eminent statesman, diplomat, scien- tist and botanist, the Hon. Joel R. Poinsett, LL.D., while on a visit (1851) to Dr. Anderson, who was his devoted friend. Though LaFayette never visited here, one of the most cher- ished possessions of this home is the LaFayette bed, with its eagles and flags and stars. It is a quaint old bed in which
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Marquis de LaFayette reposed when he visited Charleston. It was afterwards brought to "Hillorest" where it remained for many years, being called by the servants "The King's Bed." Speaking of other relics, Mrs. Saunders (writing of her an- cestral home) says : "Each child in the family has sipped from General Washington's spoon, and viewed the candles, yellow with age, taken from the stores of Lord Cornwallis after his surrender at Yorktown. The small Bible lost by General Childs during the seige of Fort Erie in 1814 and found at Fort Niagara in 1816, the gaily embroidered priest's robe (the gift of grateful nuns for protection during the Mexican War) and the swords and sashes are all valued by us as family heirlooms."
The fine library contains gems of rare and ancient books, which it has been possible to collect, as this home has been for years owned by a family of scholars. One of the Dr. Ander- sons, who lived at Hillcrest, was the first person on record who successfully removed the jaw bone for cancer, his patient living for many years in the enjoyment of health and strength. Sur- geon William Anderson (son of Dr. Anderson) inherited his father's tastes for natural history and science. While sta- tioned at posts in Texas and New Mexico he became interested in making a collection of rare plants and birds : his finest speci- mens of the latter were sent to the Smithsonian Institute at Washington, D. C., where his contributions were appreciated as of unusual interest and value. He also discovered and for- warded to Washington an entirely new species of bird, and in the grounds of the old home in South Carolina still bloom fragrant shrubs which he sent there from the West so many years ago. As a voluntary observer for many years, his meteorological records were of great value and service to the Weather Bureau at Washington in its research work.
"Hillcrest" is a large brick building so constructed that the ground floor is nearly level with the outside, and follows the colonial plan of placing a building, situated on an eleva- tion, low to the ground in order that the view should be unob- structed. This house is true to this tradition and the observer may stand in the rear door of the living room and on a clear
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CORNWALLIS HOUSE, THE OLD KERSHAW HOMESTEAD, CAMDEN From an old painting
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day gaze out over the intervening miles, and behold the smoke rising from the factory chimneys in the city of Columbia, thirty miles away.
Primitive flagstones still form the flooring to the lower piazza of Hillerest and to several quaint old passages which serve to connect the different parts of this delightfully ram- bling place, the fitting shrine of so many relics of colonial his- tory. The adjective of mellowness is one that applies with peculiar fitness to "Hillcrest" and "exclusive, " carries with it the identical atmosphere produced by this fine old home.
THE CORNWALLIS HOUSE
On an elevation south of the town of Camden, South Caro- lina, stood a handsome old residence, which was highly prized as an interesting relic of the Revolutionary War. The house was built with materials imported from England, by Colonel Joseph Kershaw, an enterprising pioneer of central South Carolina, several years before the Revolution. It was his elegant and comfortable residence until shortly after the fall of Charleston, in 1780, when the British troops overran the State. Lord Cornwallis, upon his arrival in Camden, took pos- session of this house for his headquarters.
Col. Kershaw was at this time a prisoner in the Island of Bermuda, and Mrs. Kershaw was subject to the many trials and indignities inseparable from the circumstances. Each fresh arrival of British officers in Camden, among them the merciless Lord Rawdon, brought a repetition of the same in- dignities. Mrs. Kershaw, unable to endure these any longer, sought refuge in a small house, called "The Hermitage, " owned by the family and built in the swamp of the Wateree River.
The mansion fronted to the west, and immediately south of it, only a few hundred yards distant, in the thick pine grove, stretched the long line of American fortifications, the remains of which are still to be seen. Tradition says that an American sharpshooter, hidden in the thicket aimed at a party of British officers, who were playing cards in the southeastern room of the second story and killed one. A spot of blood on the floor
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(said to have been the Englishman's) always remained an object of interest to visitors.
After the evacuation of Camden by the British, the old man- sion house was again occupied by its owners. General Greene's wife, who was then passing through the country on horseback, protected by a detachment of cavalry, became an inmate of its hospitable walls for several days. Upon the slope in front of the house General LaFayette was received on his visit to Cam- den, in 1825, by a large concourse of citizens; and upon this lawn were held the military reviews on the 4th of July and other public gatherings.
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