DRIVING TOUR OF EDGEFIELD, SC

Oakley Park, 300 Columbia Road. Built in 1835 by Daniel Bird, a prominent planter who had a special interest in architecture, Oakley Park was acquired by Col. Marshall Frazier in 1840. He lived there until his death in 1870. Several years later it was purchased by General Martin Witherspoon Gary, a former Major-General of the Confederacy. It was used as his headquarters in 1876 when he was the leader of the Red Shirt movement, a campaign to restore Democratic government to South Carolina. After Gary’s death in 1881, it was home to various members of his family until 1941 when Gary’s nephew, Governor John Gary Evans, gave the property to the Town of Edgefield and to the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Today, Oakley Park is a house museum, dedicated to the history of the War Between the States and Reconstruction and serves as a shrine to the Red Shirt movement. It is open to the public.

Adams House, 212 Augusta Road. This house was built sometime around 1890 by W.W. Adams, a prominent merchant and long-time mayor of Edgefield. It is a classic Victorian design of George F. Barber of Knoxville, Tennessee, who published books of Victorian-era house plans in the period 1890-1910. One could order the house of his choice, and it would be delivered by boxcar. When Mr. Adams died in 1913, he was one of the wealthiest men in the town. His family continued to own the house up until the mid-twentieth century. In 2008 it was purchased by Dr. Mary G. Altalo who moved to Edgefield from Maryland.

Kendall Mill, Norris Street. This mill was built in 1896 by the Edgefield Manufacturing Company, a company organized by Edgefield native and New South industrialist D. A. Tompkins. The Edgefield Manufacturing Company also owned the adjacent cotton seed oil mill, ginnery and fertilizer factory. The mill actually began production in 1898. After a series of changes in ownership and reorganizations, it was purchased in 1918 by the Kendall Company of Boston, Massachusetts, which owned and operated it as a medical gauze mill until 1983. At that time the mill was sold to a predecessor of Delta Woodside Industries, Inc. which operated it as a yarn mill until 1992 when that company constructed a new mill on the south side of town. The building was vacant until 1999 when it was completely restored as the Southern Division Headquarters of Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC) of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. CTC terminated its operations here in 2002.

Halcyon Grove, 406 Buncombe Street. A house was on this site prior to 1824 when Eldred Simkins deeded the property to Daniel Bird, who probably built the grand structure that is there today. Bird owned the property until 1829 when he sold it to Francis Pickens (1805-1969). Francis Pickens must have given or sold the house to his father, former Governor Andrew Pickens who sold it in 1836 to John Lipscomb, stating that the property is “where I now reside.” In 1857 the property was sold to James B. Sullivan who owned it until 1869 when Shemuel Wright Nicholson purchased it for his daughter, Lucy Jane, widow of Capt. John Pearson Bates, CSA. The house continued to be owned by the Bates-Hartley-Feltham family until 2008 when it was sold to Beth and Tim Worth who restored it and preserved much of its valuable history. This early plantation home has many interesting architectural features, including front windows with panel doors below which can be raised and opened to allow movement from the front rooms to the front porch. Also, the house has beautiful feather-painted wainscoting, an intricately carved archway, a hidden staircase, original Carpenter locks, bushels-of-wheat banisters with lattice columns and a magnificent fanlight over the front door.

Brooks-Tompkins House, 609 Buncombe Street. This house was built circa 1818 by Whitfield Brooks (1790-1851), a prominent lawyer and Commissioner of Equity of the Edgefield District. His eldest child, Preston S. Brooks, who became Congressman and who attained national fame in 1856 when he caned Sen. Charles Sumner on the floor of the U.S. Senate, was born here. After his parents retired to their country plantation in 1849, Preston moved back into the house with his family. The home was later purchased by Rev. Luther Gwaltney, the well-known Baptist minister, who lived there for some years. Around the turn of the 20th century, the house was purchased by Dr. James Glover Tompkins, a prominent local physician, whose family has continued to own it until the present time. In 1924 the house was partially burned but was rebuilt by Dr. Tompkins, using many of the architectural adornments of the original house, including mantelpieces, wainscotings and fanlights. The elaborate carvings are of an unusual style in Edgefield, found in only one other house, Holmewood.

Adams-Mims House, 610 Buncombe Street. A house site as early as 1843, this became the home of Dr. Benjamin Waldo in 1857. It was purchased by Thomas J. Adams (1847-1902) in 1880. Educated as a lawyer, Adams gave up his law practice in 1874 to spend the rest of his life as the Editor of The Edgefield Advertiser. His only surviving child, a daughter named Florence (1873-1951), was married to Julian Landrum Mims (1872-1937), who succeeded Adams as Editor of The Advertiser. In 1902 the house burned but was rebuilt. Julian and Florence Mims continued to live in the house for the remainder of their lives. One of their sons, Matthew Hansford Mims (1907-1989), inherited the property which continues to be owned by his family. Another son, William Walton Mims (1911-2007), succeeded his father as Editor of the Advertiser in 1937.

Holmewood, 626 Buncombe Street. Built in 1832 by William Prothro, a wealthy planter, and his wife Sara Ann Lowe, a granddaughter of Edgefield founder Arthur Simkins, Holmewood is one of the largest houses in Edgefield with some of the finest hand-carved woodwork in the region. The house was purchased in 1846 by Francis Hugh Wardlaw (1800-1861), a prominent local lawyer and judge of the Chancellery Court who lived here until his death in 1861. Wardlaw is best remembered as the author of the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession. Between 1865 and 1875, former Governor Milledge Luke Bonham (1813-1890) lived here with his family. Governor Bonham had been a U.S. Congressman, Confederate General and second War Governor of South Carolina. In 1903 the property was purchased by Thomas Hobbs Rainsford (1861-1932) whose family has resided here ever since.

Carroll Hill, 625 Buncombe Street. Built in 1842 by James Parsons Carroll (1809-1883), a prominent lawyer of Edgefield, and his wife, Eliza Anciaux Berrien of Savannah, Carroll Hill has unique architectural features that includes a floor plan with the hallway on the side and a floating staircase, which suggest the Savannah origin of its first mistress. The Carrolls lived here until 1859 when they moved to Columbia so that he could assume a position there as a Chancellor of the Equity Court. At this time, his niece, Ellen Brooks Dunovant, and her husband, R.G.M. Dunovant, moved into the home. Dunovant was a prominent military figure in South Carolina, having served as Colonel of the Palmetto Regiment in the Mexican War and as a Brigadier General in the Civil War. The Dunovant family has continued to own this property for nearly 150 years.

Mims-Norris House, 720 Buncombe Street. Built in 1817 by Matthew Mims (1780-1848), a long-time Clerk of Court and a founder of the Village Baptist Church and Furman Academy, this house has been continuously owned by his descendants for nearly two hundred years. Matthew Mims’ son, Robert Hayne Mims (1833-1912), a portrait painter and photographer, lived here his entire life. The house was purchased in 1934 by Robert H. Mims’ grandson, Robert Harold Norris (1898-1983), a Mayor of Edgefield and the long-time banker of the town. Following the deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Norris, the house was purchased in 1996 by Suzanne Mims Derrick, another direct descendant of Matthew Mims. This story and a half house were constructed in the forks of the Newberry and Ninety Six Roads just north of Edgefield. It was built with fanlight entrances facing both roads as well as a third entrance facing the Courthouse village. It has beautiful wainscotings and mantles as well as an interesting arch separating the parlor and dining room.

Cedar Grove, U.S. Highway 25 North. This is one of the earliest of the grand plantation houses of Edgefield County. Built by a prosperous early settler, John Blocker, between 1790 and 1805, this house has many remarkable architectural features, including a curved ceiling in the hallway, elaborately carved mantelpieces, and hand-painted French wallpaper. The gardens were reputedly laid out by Andre Michaux, the renowned botanist who had designed the gardens at Middleton Place in Charleston. The house was purchased in 1825 by John Bones, a wealthy Augusta merchant, for his parents who had emigrated from Ireland. It was handed down through the Bones, Hughes and Nicholson families who continued to own it until 1973. The famous boxwoods of Cedar Grove were sold during the Depression to the Rockefeller family and placed in the gardens of the Governor’s Palace in Williamsburg. The house was purchased in 2007 by Ms. Collins Lamar Daye, originally of Americus, Georgia.

Blocker House, U.S. Highway 25 North. Built circa 1790 by John Blocker, Sr. (1749-1814), this is the ancestral home of the Blocker family. It was inherited by Blocker’s son Bartley (1790-1849). After the death of Mrs. Blocker in 1871, the house was sold to Samuel B. Hughes of Cedar Grove. His daughter Miss Mary Hughes inherited the house and owned it until 1973. The house was later purchased and restored by Congressman Butler Derrick who sold it in 1991 to Mr. and Mrs. James F. Martin. The original house was only about one-third of the present facade. Beautiful Flemish bond chimneys from the 18th century and elaborate mantelpieces make this one of the most architecturally interesting houses of the Old Edgefield District. The spacious northwest wing was added by the Martins. Some three hundred yards behind the house is the Blocker Cemetery where many prominent Edgefieldians are buried.

Macedonia Baptist Church, 315 Macedonia Street. Formed in the years right after the War Between the States, Macedonia was built on four acres purchased from Mrs. Rebecca Bland in 1869. Most of its founding members had been members of the Edgefield Village Baptist Church (now First Baptist) and included Peter Johnson, Paris Simkins, Andrew Simkins, Laurence Cain, George Simkins and Robert A. Green. The present church building was completed in 1901. The cemetery behind the church contains the graves of many remarkable members, including prominent Reconstruction leader Lawrence Cain (1845-1884), Katie Ramey, whose white husband, Judge W.D. Ramey is buried in Willowbrook Cemetery, and Paris Simkins, mulatto Reconstruction leader who was the son of Arthur Simkins, the longtime editor of the Edgefield Advertiser.

Thurmond Birthplace, 305 Columbia Road. Built before 1897, this house was purchased by J. William Thurmond, a prominent local attorney and later U.S. Attorney, for his family home in 1897. It was in this house that James Strom Thurmond was born on December 5, 1902. The Thurmond family lived here until 1906 when Strom was nearly four years old. At that time Mr. Thurmond moved his family to a house on the corner of Penn and Bauskett Streets in Edgefield so that his children could have enough land to learn the valuable lessons of farm life. That house has since been torn down and the site is now occupied by the Edgefield Presbyterian Church. After being educated in the schools of Edgefield and at Clemson College, Strom Thurmond went on to become a teacher, County Superintendent of Education, State Senator, Circuit Judge, War hero, Governor of South Carolina, Presidential Candidate, United States Senator and President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate. The house was purchased in 2002 by David and Michelle Satcher.

Carnoosie, 415 Columbia Road. This home, built by M. Lebeschultz in 1860 as a one-story structure, is principally remembered as the home of the Sheppard family. It was purchased in the early 1880s by the Austrian immigrant and builder, M. A. Markert, who sold it in 1884 to John Calhoun Sheppard (1850-1931), a prominent lawyer, politician and businessman. Sheppard became Governor of South Carolina in 1886. The house was first enlarged by the addition of the west wing and later, in 1891, by a second story. It is believed that M. A. Markert was the contractor for these expansions. Sheppard continued to be active in state and local politics and business for more than four decades. His son, James Orlando Sheppard (1890-1973), who followed in his father’s footsteps becoming Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina during the 1920s, also lived here until his death. The name “Carnoosie” is reputed to be a Cherokee word for “cornfield,” but it is unclear why and when the name was first applied to this house. The house was purchased by Dr. Betty Jean Wood, an Edgefield native who had successfully practiced ophthalmology in New Orleans.

East Hill, 611 Columbia Road. This early Victorian home, completed in 1859 for James Henry Mims, is very unlike other antebellum homes in Edgefield in that it is primarily one-story with five main rooms across the front. It bears unique Victorian architectural features, including gingerbread trim around the front porch and wide openings between the rooms, with multiple hinged doors. The house was purchased by General Matthew Calbraith Butler (1836-1909) in 1870. Butler had been a Major General in the Confederate Army and played a leading role in the 1876 Red Shirt Campaign to restore Democratic government to South Carolina. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1877 and served until 1895. Afterwards he was commissioned as a Major General in the United States Army during the Spanish American War. In 1904 the house was purchased by Senator Benjamin Edwin Nicholson whose family continues to own the house today.

Darby, U.S. Highway 25 South. Built by Nathan Lipscomb Griffin in 1842, this home was acquired by his son-in-law, Milledge Luke Bonham, in 1858. Bonham was a Congressman, Governor and Confederate General. He lived here before the War and then later during Reconstruction. In 1863 Bonham sold Darby to George Trenholm, a blockade runner who was reputedly the inspiration for Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind and who subsequently became the Confederate Treasurer. Trenholm allowed his friend Professor Francis Simons Holmes of the College of Charleston to refugee here during the War. Holmes brought many artifacts from the Charleston Museum and stored them at Darby. The house was purchased in the late 19th century by Walter S. Miller. After his death, his widow left the property to her nephew, Douglas L. Wise who owned the house until his death. The property is now owned by Mr. Wise’s daughter, Miss Clarice Wise.

Pine House, U.S. Highway 25 South. This historic landmark dates from 1757 when a tract of 200 acres “known by the name of the Piney Wood House” was surveyed for Richard Pace. It was located at the junction of two important trails: one from Augusta to Saxe Gotha (near Columbia) and the other from Charleston to Ninety Six. Prior to 1786 the property was acquired by Capt. Van Swearingen (1743-1808). President George Washington dined here on May 21, 1791, during his Southern tour. In 1818 the property was sold by Swearingen’s son, and in the ensuing years passed through a succession of owners including John Cloud, B. F. Perry, Henry Lowe, Robert Glover, William Eddins and General John R. Wever (1820-1874). The record is unclear as to when and by whom the original “Piney Wood house” from the colonial era was dismantled and replaced by the substantial Greek Revival mansion which was there by the mid-19th century. General Wever has traditionally been given credit for this, as the house was referred to as “the Wever Mansion,” but these same sources date the structure at 1810, much earlier than Wever’s ownership. The probability is that the “Wever Mansion” was built by Wever after he purchased it in 1847. The property was sold by Weverin 1858 to Benjamin Warren Bettis (1812-1893). The house burned in 1868 and was rebuilt by 1870. Two flanking “garconnieres” or outbuildings of the Wever Mansion were not consumed by the fire and survive today. The Bettis family continued to own the property until Julius M. Vann, Sr. bought it in 1934. It has remained in that family into the 21st century. Some sources have confused the record by suggesting that the original Pine House was located across Highway 25 where an early tavern apparently stood. This interpretation does not, however, bear up under a scrutiny of the deed and plat records, which make clear that the original Piney Wood house was where the Pine House is situated today.

Mulberry Hill, S.C. Highway 121. This home, located halfway between Johnston and Trenton, was built in the 1870s for Joseph Huiet Bouknight by Captain Michael Anton Markert, an Austrian immigrant who came to Edgefield in the middle of the 19th century and who built many houses in the area. A number of architectural features, including the octagonal columns, pediments over the windows and braces under the eaves, are the distinctive features of the houses that Markert built. The house was named for the very large Mulberry tree which was located at the corner of the house, which legend says was planted as a switch by a visiting horsewoman. Mr. Bouknight married Miss Emma Bettis of the Pine House in 1889. Their youngest son, William Miller Bouknight inherited Mulberry Hill and lived here with his family. After his death in 1945, his wife continued to live here until the 1980s, when the property was sold.

Forest Cottage or Scout Gray House, 605 Gray Street. This house is believed to have been built in the 1850s by Charles Martin Gray, Sr. (1800-1870), an Edgefield native who had long service in the United States Army, fighting in the Indian and Mexican Wars, and later in the Confederate Army, from first to second Manassas. His son Scout Gray (1843-1901) also entered the Confederate service, fighting in Longstreet’s Corps. He was widely recognized as a very brave and talented scout who was wounded seven times in battle, including one head wound which necessitated the removal of part of his skull. He returned to Edgefield after the War and lived at Forest Cottage until his death. He always dressed like and resembled “Buffalo Bill.” Early in the 20th century the house was purchased by J.W. Quarles whose family lived there for nearly fifty years. The house was purchased in 2002 by Johanna and Fredricke Starr, who have restored it to its former glory. The style of the house is that of a “raised cottage,” meaning that the second floor is the main floor with a grand staircase ascending to it, with bedrooms and secondary rooms on the first floor. The architectural details of the molding and trim reflect the early Victorian period of the 1850s.

Sweetbriar, 176 Cantelou Road. The original part of the house was built in the late eighteenth century by John Mims who died there in 1804 and is buried behind the barn. His son Talton Mims, who died in 1812, is also buried there. The property was later purchased by Preston S. Brooks (1819-1857) who became Congressman and who gained national notoriety for his caning of Senator Charles Sumner in 1856. The Brooks family moved into the house upon Preston’s marriage in 1845, and his eldest daughter was born here in 1846. When the war with Mexico broke out in 1846 and Preston volunteered for service, he sold the house to James Rainsford (1799-1867), an Englishman who had arrived in 1833 and who was married to his Edgefield cousin, Esther Rainsford (1815-1871). They enlarged the house and made considerable improvements to it, making it the center of their2,500 acre plantation. Esther Rainsford left the property to her nephew, Rainsford Cantelou (1836-1894), who lived there with his family. After the death of Rainsford Cantelou and his wife, the property descended to their youngest son, Bettis Cantelou, who owned it until 1920. The property went through a succession of owners until 1949 when it was purchased by Edgefield County Sheriff A. J. “Jack” White. The property was inherited by Sheriff White’s widow, Grace Rawls White Mobley (1916-2007) and is now owned by his daughter, Helen White Feltham.

Edgewood, Center Springs Road. Perhaps the grandest and most famous of the Edgefield plantations, Edgewood was the home of Governor Francis W. Pickens (1805-1869), Congressman, United States Ambassador to Russia and War Governor of South Carolina (1860-1862). Although the house was moved to Aiken in 1929 and is therefore no longer in the County, the history of this house and the family who lived here is among the most fascinating tales of Edgefield. Our story would not be complete without some description of Edgewood. According to many sources Edgewood was built in 1829, but the original cornerstone, which can be seen in the Discovery Center on Main Street in Edgefield, has the date “1836” along with the initials “FWP.” Built at the crest of a high hill on the Newberry Road (now the “Center Springs Road”) approximately 1.5 miles north of town, the house was not the typical antebellum mansion, but was a story and a half structure to which flanking dependencies had been added on each end. According to tradition, the grounds of Edgewood were designed by a landscape architect from England. Many interesting species of plants were interspersed among statuary which adorned the gardens. The acreage surrounding the house contained one of the few remaining virgin forests in the state. Having acquired considerable wealth over the years, Pickens filled Edgewood with many elegant furnishings. His third wife, the beautiful Lucy Holcombe Pickens (1832-1899), helped him entertain extensively at Edgewood in the period following his term as Governor. After her husband’s death in 1869, Lucy continued to live at Edgewood until her death in 1899.