USA > South Carolina > Historic houses of South Carolina > Part 19
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27
201
CHAPTER XI
JOHN'S ISLAND AND EDISTO ISLAND, THE PLACES AND THE PEOPLE
ST. ANDREW'S PARISH AND ST. PAUL'S
V Stono River are found many his- toric spots, some of which will be subsequently discussed in connection with John's Island. On the main- land, however, adjacent to Charles- ton, was the Eliza Lucas plantation commonly known as the Bluff, on old Wappoo Creek before Elliott's cut was made. It was on the trucking place lately in the possession of John N. Voorhees. Here Eliza Lucas sat in her "little study," and planned such wonderful things for South Carolina.
On the Stono also lived Martha Ferguson Blake, who mar- ried William Washington, and both are buried in the old Elliott private cemetery on "Live Oak," St. Paul's Parish, not far from Rantowles bridge. There in the sadly neglected graveyard are also buried Colonel William Washington and his wife, Jane Riley Elliott, and the only inscription on the stone which covers them both is "My parents Dear Lie Here."
This is on the mainland, and is a little above John's Island Ferry, which has long been in operation.
JOHN'S ISLAND HOUSES
During the Revolutionary War many stirring scenes were transacted in the neighborhood of John's Island, and Mrs. Ellet's Domestic History of the Revolution tells many of the most interesting of these, including the incident of a Fenwick child being rescued by a Miss Gibbes. A miniature of the latter is owned by Miss Anna Gibbes, the subject being Mrs. Alexander Garden, née Mary Anna Gibbes (The Heroine of the Stono), who saved the life of an infant cousin during the
208
ST. ANDREW'S CHAPEL, IN ST. ANDREW'S PARISH, ON ASHLEY RIVER, NEAR CHARLESTON
JOHN'S ISLAND AND EDISTO ISLAND
Revolution when the British were firing upon the house. The infant afterwards became Major Fenwick, of the War of 1812.
This story is often erroneously ascribed to the house called Fenwick Castle, but Mrs. Ellet says that "Fenwick Place," still called "Headquarters," was three miles from "Peaceful Retreat," the Gibbes home. From the fact that the graves of Robert Gibbes and Sarah, his wife, are found in a graveyard about three miles beyond Headquarters, it would seem that Peaceful Retreat was adjacent to that cemetery.
Near the Ferry stood the Laurels, built by Mr. Turnbull, on a high bluff now called Simmons Bluff. The house was con- structed of black cypress, held together by hand-wrought nails. It stood on a high brick foundation, and was three and a half stories high, containing 32 rooms. In the old burying ground adjacent to the home site are found the names of Mrs. Edith Matthews and several of the Simmons family, while another graveyard about two miles distant on the roadside contains tombstones bearing the names of Barnard Smith Elliott, Bar- nard Elliott, Robert Gibbes (died July 4, 1794, aged 64 years) and his wife, Sarah Gibbes (died 1825, aged 79 years).
Letters from Kinsey Burden to Micah Jenkins (of Wood- land and Capes plantations), about roads on John's Island, speak of the "Old Ridge Road" as a "man and horse way -- 'a foot way for my people to and from Church,' " and describe the east end of the Old Ridge Road, from "your middle gate on said road where it enters the pine barren through to the lower or River Road." Kinsey Burden also says that Micah Jenkins had attempted to move the public landing from the place of Mr. Jenkin's son-in-law, Mr. Gervais. John Louis Gervais was an intimate friend and companion of Henry Laurens, and his descendants are still extant.
FENWICK CASTLE
At what date the first Fenwick came to South Carolina is not known, but it was about the beginning of the eighteenth century. During the French Invasion in 1706 he commanded a company of militia. In South Carolina we find Edward Fenwick, sometimes called Honorable, as a member of His
14
209
HISTORIC HOUSES OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Majesty's Council in 1747. He was married twice, his first wife being Martha Izard, daughter of Honorable Ralph Izard. Their only child, Elizabeth, married John Barnwell, but she died within a year and left no issue.
In 1753 Edward Fenwick married Mary Drayton, daugh- ter of Thomas Drayton, and by her had many children. After her husband's death Mrs. Fenwick married William Gerard de Brahm, an engineer officer in the service of the colonies of South Carolina, and removed to Philadelphia. . Her will is dated 1805.
Edward Fenwick's children were as follows : Edward Fen- wick, John Fenwick, Sarah Fenwick, who was twice married, first to John MacCartan Campbell, of Charleston, 1777. Mr. Campbell bought from his brother-in-law (the Hon. Edward Fenwick) a residence on Lower Meeting Street in Charleston, now known as the Calhoun Mansion. After her husband's death Sarah married Dr. George Jones, of Savannah. An- other daughter of Edward Fenwick, Mary, married Walter Izard, son of Ralph Izard, but died shortly after her marriage, and in 1758 was born her brother Thomas, of whom very little is known, which is true also of Robert, born 1761.
Martha Fenwick, another child of Edward, married in 1778 Thomas Gadsden, a captain in the first regiment South Caro- lina Continentals, a son of General Christopher Gadsden. The daughters seemed to have contracted brilliant marriages ; one of them, Charlotte Elizabeth, was twice married, her first husband being William Leigh Pierce, of Virginia, a captain in the Continental Army, who was voted a sword by Congress for his good conduct at the battle of Eutaw Springs. William Pierce and his wife settled after the war in Georgia and we find him as a delegate from that State to the Constitutional Convention. After his death his widow, Charlotte, married Ebenezer Jackson, of Massachusetts, a lieutenant in the third Continental artillery. Their daughter, Harriett Jack- son, married her first cousin, Commodore Tattnall.
Of the next two Fenwick children, Selina and Matilda, little is known, except that Selina was appointed sole executrix of her mother's will and Matilda married Robert Giles. Edward
210
يجنيه احداير.
-சிவம்
٠٠٧
"FENWICK CASTLE" JOHN- ISLAND A very old, Historie har wow owned by Mr. Hory Whilea
JOHN'S ISLAND AND EDISTO ISLAND
Fenwick seems to have been fond of repeating names in his family, or to have followed the fashion of naming a living child for one that had died, as we find a Robert William Fen- wick, born in 1765, as we also find a John Roger Fenwick, born in 1773. This John became a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps, rising from that to a captaincy. From this service he resigned to enter another branch of military life and died in 1842 as brevet brigadier general. He is the last child, gene- alogically speaking, but his sister Harriett, who was younger than himself by four years is more interesting to us. She mar- ried Josiah Tattnall, Jr. (second son of Josiah Tattnall and Miss Mullrayne), who was born at his grandfather's place, Bonaventure, in Georgia. Harriett's husband became Gov- ernor of Georgia, and her son, who married his cousin, Miss Jackson, became Commodore Josiah Tattnall.
There was one other son, George Fenwick, of whom we learn very little, suffice it to say that when the Hon. Edward Fenwick, a member of the King's Council in South Carolina died in New York on 7th of July, 1775, his widow and sons char- tered the sloop Commerce for the voyage to Charles Town, whither they carried his remains for interment.
When Edward Fenwick's will was read Robert Gibbes and John Gibbes were found to be qualified executors, although Robert alone served. There was a close kinship between the Gibbes and Fenwick families, the Hon. John Fenwick, of South Carolina, who died about 1747, having mar- ried Elizabeth Gibbes, a daughter of Gov. Robert Gibbes, of South Carolina. Although the Fenwicks elected to drop their titles of nobility, the records in England clearly show them to have been of noble origin, and it is doubtless due to this fact that Fenwick goes by the name of Lord Ripon. A partition in the Court of Chancery, the original being in a collection of Prof. Yates Snowden, of the University of South Carolina, shows that they were a family of immense belongings, and much other information is set forth. It is with interest that we read in Rice's Digested Index that "in 1796 Miss Fenwick was allowed to bring certain negroes into the State."
211
HISTORIC HOUSES OF SOUTH CAROLINA
-
The Fenwick mansion is a beautiful home built of brick and erected in a substantial and dignified way. The façade of this building reveals a two-story structure erected over a deep brick basement employed as a fort in primitive times.
Within the basement is found an old well used to supply the garrison with water in case of seige, and an underground passage which extends about a hundred yards to a little gully at the rear of the house. It is a brick passage large enough to permit a man to crawl through on hands and knees, make his escape, and give the alarm of Indian attacks. In addition to these measures for protection the note of defense is again struck in the substantial inside shutters of the windows. The house has a hipped-roof upon the top of which is erected a small observation platform which commanded a view of the country for miles around.
The interior decorations of the building are unusually beautiful, the paneling of the up and down stairs rooms being of cedar, and the wainscoting of pine. The mantels are very highly decorated, the pattern of the wall of Troy occurring frequently. The railings of the staircase are of mahogany, and the style in which the entire house is finished can be real- ized from the fact that the latches of the windows are all of solid silver. The rooms measure sixteen by eighteen feet, with unusually high ceilings. The carving around the mantel in the largest sitting-room is extraordinarily beautiful, being a combination of the St. Andrew's Cross with the Greek Key and Acanthus leaf.
Fenwick Castle has many romantic stories connected with it, perhaps the most interesting being that concerning the love affair of a daughter of the house with one of her father's grooms. Fenwick was sometimes called Lord Ripon, and was noted for the fact that he had a private race course laid out in front of his house. It is doubtless true that one of the girls did fall in love with some handsome young Englishman who came to bring some thoroughbred racers to her father's estate.
However, the father would have none of the marriage, and we can picture the unhappy scene which transpired in this old house with its magnificent furnishings when the girl pleaded
212
€
"BRICK HOUSE"
The old Roper-Stanyarne Home on John's Island, near Charleston
JOHN'S ISLAND AND EDISTO ISLAND
in vain to be allowed to marry her lover. Consent being re- fused, it is said that the couple ran away and were married, whereupon the father pursued them, with very tragic conse- quences. He is said to have hung the young man while the latter was seated on his horse, causing the girl to lash the horse from under him, resulting in her lover's death and her broken heart.
The same sternness of character was exhibited by Edward Fenwick, as he was among the Loyalists in South Carolina, and his estates were confiscated. Nothing is known of the life of the Fenwick family after the Revolution except what informa- tion was found in legal papers pertaining to the estate. Their genealogy is given in full in the South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine.
The only other really old place on John's Island is the old Roper place down near Legareville, known as Brick House. Although deserted, it is still standing, and is closely connected with the history of the Hext and Roper families, while graves of Stanyarnes and Freers are found in the little overgrown burying ground not far distant from the house. The place now belongs to the wife of Bishop Knight, who came into posses- sion of it through her first husband, the gallant Captain William Yates. On Kiawah Island stands a handsome house belonging to the Vanderhorst estate.
EDISTO ISLAND AND ITS HOMES
The first mention concerning Edisto Island is found in a history of the baronies of South Carolina when "On the 18th March, 1675, a formal grant for 12,000 acres on Ashley River was issued to Anthony, Earl of Shaftsbury, but for some reason the Earl of Shaftsbury did not seem at first to have taken very kindly to his signiory on Ashley River and inclined to establish himself elsewhere." On the 23rd of May, 1674, the Earl wrote to Maurice Matthews: "My thoughts were to have planted on Ashley River, but the people tooke soe little care to allow or provide for me any accomodacon neare them having taken up for themselves all the best conveniences on that river and left me not a tolerable Place to plant on nearer
213
HISTORIC HOUSES OF SOUTH CAROLINA
than two Miles from the Water that I am forced to seeke out in another place and resolve to take me a Signiory at Edisto River." The place selected by him was on Edisto Island (then called Locke Island), and the person selected to take it up was Mr. Andrew Percivall. Percivall seems to have been some sort of connection of the Earl of Shaftsbury as in the letter to Matthews the Earl describes Percivall as one "Who hath a Relacon to my Family,"
Percivall was not only to take up a signiory for the Earl, but was to make a settlement there for the Lord Proprietors, and to be independent of the Government at the settle- ment on Ashley River. Mr. Henry Woodward was directed to treat with the Indians of Edisto and buy it of them, but this projected settlement of Edisto Island seems to have been abandoned.
In South Carolina until 1716 the Indian trade was con- ducted solely under the auspices of individual enterprise. Next to the traders were the burden bearers, who frequently consisted of boys, under the direction of an experienced "voyageur." The place of Peter St. Julien, near Dorchester (a town near the head of the Ashley River) was a great camp- ing ground for these traders, as from this place the trails to the Congaree and Chickasaw diverged. A caravan, for in- stance, on the latter route leaving Charleston would stop first at St. Julien's, thence proceed to Wasmasaw, thence to "The Ponds" and on to Edlisto, thence to Fort Moore, or Savannah Town, a short distance below Hamberg, opposite Augusta, Ga. Nearly the entire railway system which had been con- structed up to 1859 followed almost precisely on the routes of the old Indian trails of her infant commerce.
An Act dated June, 1714, is entitled "An act for continuing the road to Edisto Island and making a bridge over Dawhoo Creek, and finishing the road to Port Royal, and making a bridge over the South Edisto River." Some of the names of the inhabitants of Edisto Island are found in an Act dated 1751 in which commissioners were appointed for "cutting, clearing and cleaning . Watt's Cutt' " and all the male inhab- itants, from the ages of 16 to 60 years, living and residing from
214
VANDERHORST HOUSE, CHAPEL STREET, CHARLESTON
VANDERHORST HOUSE ON KIAWAH ISLAND
JOHN'S ISLAND AND EDISTO ISLAND
the plantation of Captain William Eddings, to the plantations of William Adams and Joshia Grimball, inclusive, and Je- hossey Island " shall work on the said Cutt."
During the Revolutionary War Edisto Inlet was particu- larly infested by privateers, "refugees' boats," and Row- Galleys, coming up from St. Augustine, seeking cattle for the garrison there, plunder of indigo and rice, and revenge. These "refugee boats" were long, low, uncovered pettiaugers, car- ried from 40 to 50 men, armed with muskets and boarding pikes, and manned each with 24 oars, 12 sweeps to the side, and carried each a six-pounder in the bow and a four-pounder in the stern; they were rigged with sliding gunter masts and latteen sails, very like the pirate galleys of the Mediterranean, and were usually manned by refugee royalists who had fled from the State, and by Mediterranean sailors from the Greeks at New Smyrna.
Edisto Island is bounded, roughly speaking, on the north by the North Edisto River, spoken of as Edisto Inlet; on the south by the South Edisto River; west by Dawhoo River, which connects these two large rivers; and on the east by the Atlantic Ocean. This island has been facetiously called "The Independent Republic of Edisto," because, at the time pre- ceding the Civil War, she threatened to secede from the State of South Carolina, unless the State seceded from the Union.
Although the main industry of the island was the planting of Sea Island cotton, many of the planters were college gradu- ates, and not a few could show university degrees from famous European universities, for example. Theodore Gaillard Thomas, M. D., who was born on Edisto Island, S. C., 1831, and was the son of Rev. Edward Thomas and Jane Marshall Gail- lard, daughter of Judge Theodore Gaillard. He received his early education at the College of Charleston and was a gradu- ate of the Medical College of the State of South Carolina, sub- sequently went to Europe and studied medicine in the great scientific centres of the world. After serving as interne at Belleview Hospital he became professor of obstetrics and dis- eases of women in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, and consulting physician to the Nursery and
215
HISTORIC HOUSES OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Child's Hospital at St. Mary's Hospital, Brooklyn. He was also surgeon and one of the founders of the Woman's Hospital in New York. He was president of the American Gynæco- logical Society, and an honorary member of the Obstetrical Society of Berlin. Dr. Thomas was twice married, his first wife being his cousin, Mary Gaillard, and his second wife, a Miss Willard, of Willard's Academy, N. Y., one of the noted sisters of that name. He was the author of numerous books and pamphlets touching subjects connected with his profession, of which some have been translated into French, German, Italian and Chinese.
Edisto lands being ill adapted to rice cultivation, the islanders early turned their attention to the indigo plant. Their product was in great demand and sold for a higher price than any other grown and manufactured in the State, but the culture of indigo ceased to be remunerative and in 1796 experi- ments were made with the cotton plant.
From a register kept by Mr. Murray, some years previous to 1826, it appears that in the course of sixteen years, there were among the white inhabitants sixty-six marriages, two hundred and twelve births and one hundred and seventy-seven deaths. The following are mentioned as owning plantations : Rev. McLeod, Ephraim Mikell, James Clark, William Eddings, Daniel Townsend. William Seabrook, William C. Meggott (Meggett), Dr. Chisolm, Gabriel Seabrook, and Norman McLeod.
Mr. Mills, in his Statistics, says that "It does not appear that any establishment similar to that of a tavern was ever attempted on the island; strangers and visitors are hospitably entertained in private families and are sent about on horse- back, or in carriages as their cimcumstances or exigencies may require." Mr. Mills speaks with authority, as many of his boyhood days were spent on the island. He goes on to say that "two ferries were early established but such was the in- frequency of the intercourse that these ferries have been discontinued." Contracts were, however, made in Mr. Mills' time (1826), for the construction of a causeway and ferry from this island to the mainland, which has ever since been in use.
216
JOHN'S ISLAND AND EDISTO ISLAND
Several old homes are found in the interior of the island situ- ated near the old public roads, but the ferries were for many years abandoned and passage was made only by boat, thus most of the old settlements are to be found on the rivers or on the three bold creeks that cut deep into the island. The one known as Steamboat Creek comes in from the North Edisto River. There is a similar large creek sweeping in from the Sonth Edisto River, called Pierre's Creek, which divides into two branches known as Fishing Creek and Big Bay-Creek.
THE WILLIAM SEABROOK HOUSES
The William Seabrook House on Edisto, according to Judge Smith, the present owner, was built about 1808 by Mr. William Seabrook, of Edisto Island, who was a very wealthy planter and acquired a great deal of property. He died about 1837, and the property continued to be occupied by his widow until after her death, about 1854 or 1855 ; when it was sold, and purchased by Mr. J. Evans Eddings, then a very wealthy planter, by whom it was sold some time near the year 1875.
This is a very handsome house. The foundations are of brick, and the outside weather-boarding is of cypress, of which the greater portion of the house is built. It is a substantial three-story dwelling, the chief architectural feature of which is the interior stairway in the rear hall which ascends to the second story by a double flight, broken half way up by a landing on which a beautiful colonial window with a double arch occurs. The only other similar set of steps is in the Brown residence in Charleston, on Ashley Avenue. Unlike the majority of houses on the island this place does not display the usual double piazzas on the front, but has a double portico, up and down stairs.
When the house was bought by Judge Smith there was no furniture in it of any value; nothing but a few old broken pieces. The tradition is that a raiding party of Northern sol- diers, during the Civil War, entered the house, threw nearly all of the furniture then inside out of the windows and from the upper piazzas, wrecking most of it, and destroyed a great many of the banisters and railings of the front stairs and piazza.
217
3
HISTORIC HOUSES OF SOUTH CAROLINA - -
Prior to the acquisition of the property by the elder Mr. William Seabrook, the land was owned by the Townsend fam- ily for many years, which family is fully discussed in connec- tion with Bloak Hall, one of the few "dead houses" on Edisto Island.
William Seabrook was, as has been said, a man of large means, and the Seabrook family has spread to the surrounding islands and to the mainland. Mr. Seabrook was formerly the owner of Sea Side plantation on Edisto, part of which, lying on the west side of the middle road, joins lands of Mr. Eddings the elder. His first will was made in 1836, in which the Charles- ton house of the Seabrooks is described as being on the south side of Broad Street, and the east side of Logan. In 1837 Mary Ann and Sarah Seabrook (who married James Legare) conveyed this property to Andrew Dibble.
In this Seabrook home on Edisto, not far from the steam- boat landing, LaFayette was entertained at a great ball. Just before the affair a female infant three weeks old was brought in and christened. LaFayette took her in his arms and named her Carolina for the State, and LaFayette for himself. This was the lady who subsequently lived in the Hopkinson house, having married a Mr. Hopkinson, and it is curious to note that she was born on Washington's Birthday, February the twenty-second. The old home of the Seabrook family is at present unoccupied, being in the care of R. T. La Roche, who married Ruth Seabrook.
OAK ISLAND
An interesting old wooden house is found at Oak Island, now owned by Mr. E. Mitchell Seabrook, grandson of William Seabrook the younger. Judge Smith says that the elder Mr. William Seabrook (whose place is now the property of Judge Smith, the house on it having been built about 1808), also had a son, William Seabrook, who owned a plantation about two miles away called Oak Island. There are some very pretty photographs of this place and the garden, which were taken, it is believed, by some Northerner during the war. Concern- ing these pictures Mrs. George E. Hazlehurst, who was Miss
218
7
THE WILLIAM SEABROOK HOUSE, EDISTO ISLAND Now owned by Judge H. A. M. Smith
JOHN'S ISLAND AND EDISTO ISLAND
Jennie Mikell, of Edisto, relates that upon one occasion a Miss Whaley, who was attending a function in Washington, met during the evening an officer who had been stationed on Edisto Island when it was occupied by the Federal troops. Finding that she was from Edisto he went on to describe to her the gardens at Oak Island as being the most beautiful he had ever seen. He may well have said so then, as the place boasted of the finest natural features with which the imported English landscape-gardener could wish to work.
This gardener had been brought over to this country for the purpose of laying out the gardens at Oak Island. He utilized the lakes and little islands much in the style of a Japanese garden of to-day, and connected these charming little retreats with rustic bridges. Formal fish ponds were placed at either end of the garden, and on several of the islets aviarios were established, while sacred lilies of India were planted in the waters of the little lakes.
Oak Island went to John Edward Seabrook, who married Elizabeth Baynard Whaley, and years after the Civil War it passed to Mitchell Seabrook, in whose possession is found also Seaside, one of the largest plantations on Edisto Island, which is situated near Big Bay Creek, and is adjacent to McConkie's Beach and Eddingsville Beach. Near this latter place, on Frampton's Inlet, an old settlement formerly existed, which has now been swept into the sea.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.