MOUNT PLEASANT PLANTATIONS Kirk Family By F. M. Kirk

The stream that flows from Loch Dhu springs through Mount Pleasant plantation in Upper John's parish, Berkeley county, is as clear as the lochs of Scottish highlands, as it takes its way to Santee river. But the waters from the fountains, named by Scot emigrant William Kirk, will change its color, if the Santee is dammed for hydro-electric power.

The crystal lake will flow backward from Santee and flood lands that have been planted more than century and a half. Santee will cover the cemetery where William Kirk's descendants are buried, close to the home where they lived and died.

William Kirk, Scot emigrant, arrived in Charleston in 1741 and received grants of land in Craven county. As Craven county was never well defined, and went out of existence as a unit when the Lords Proprietors went out of commission in 1719, these grants probably were the nucleus of Mount Pleasant.

The plantation is one of the oldest in Upper St. John's. The house, which was destroyed by fire in 1887, was built before the Revolution.  The present house was built several years after the original homestead was destroyed.

7 Miles from Eutaw Springs

The house site is located on the banks of the lake formed by damming the stream flowing from Loch Dhu Springs. The plantation is now the property of Richard S. Kirk, the sixth generation from emigrant William. The place has never passed out of the hands of the family.

Loch Dhu, the adjoining Kirk plantation, was settled by Robert James Kirk, grandson of the emigrant, who in 1816 built the house that stands there. Like Mount Pleasant, Loch Dhu has never passed out of the hands of the family. It was the boyhood home of Robert J. Kirk, of Florence, consul to Denmark, during Cleveland's Administration.

Though British born, William Kirk, with his four sons, took an active part in the Revolution. When the British occupied Charleston in 1780, his family, who were then in the city, were among those ordered out because of Revolutionary activity.

Gideon Kirk, William's eldest son, was the owner of Mount Pleasant. Gideon, and most of his descendants, are buried in the family cemetery, which lies only a hundred yards east of the house.  After the death of Gideon Kirk in 1797, Mount Pleasant passed into the hands of his son-in-law, Francis Marion, the grand-nephew and adopted son of General Francis Marion.

Changes Name to Marion

Francis Marion was born a Dwight. On the understanding that he would become the general's namesake and heir, he dropped his surname, by act of the Legislature.

His act proved futile, however, for the general's will was not witnessed and he was judged intestate. His adopted son inherited only some of his personal property.

Francis Marion was recalled from a northern academy when the General died in 1795. Four years later he married Charlotte, daughter of Gideon Kirk. She died the following year and he married her twin sister, Harriet, in 1801. He moved to Mount Pleasant, apparently, after his first marriage.

General Marion's wish to perpetuate his name was not fulfilled. His namesake was the father of eight children. All of them, however, were daughters.

One of these daughters, named for General Marion's wife, married Richard Yeadon, editor of The Charleston Courier. Another, Gabriella, married her first cousin, Philip Couturier Kirk, of Loch Dhu.

Garden on Lake Shore

Francis Marion died in 1833. His widow survived him twenty-three years. One daughter died young. The other seven all married, and Mrs. Marion lived alone on the plantation until her death in 1856.

She devoted most of her energies to the garden for which the place was famous. This extended from the house to the lake at. the foot of the yard. Though little remains of the old garden, vestiges linger to remind one of its former glory.

Along the banks of the lake remnants of brick terraces still show. And in the present garden stands an immense japonica, probably planted before Mrs. Marion's time. The tree, largest of its kind in this section, measures seventy inches in circumference at the base, and is more than a 100 years old.

Peggy, a pet servant of General and Mrs. Marion, was part of the personal property inherited by the general's adopted son. She lived to be more than a hundred years old, it is said, and was a constant companion of Mrs. Marion.

Mrs. Harriet Marion ruled her domain in no uncertain terms. Her sole protection was a gigantic negro women who slept in the house.

How Slave Got Whipped

On one occasion a slave attempted to break into the house and steal some money kept in a secretary. The dusky Amazon protector of the household collared the intruder, single-handed, and held him until Mrs. Marion arrived. The mistress of the plantation held her own court. She sent for her son-in-law  at Loch Dhu, a quarter of a mile away, who, under her supervision, applied the lashes she meted out.

The old house was burned the year after the earthquake that rocked Charleston so disastrously. It is supposed that the tremors damaged the chimneys, then more than a century old, and that a crack in one of t he flues was responsible for the fire.

Mrs. Marion willed Mount Pleasant to her grand son, Dr. Philip Sidney Kirk, son of Philip Couturier and Gabriella Marion Kirk, of Loch Dhu. Dr. Kirk saw service in the War Between the States as a surgeon in the Confederate army.

His son, the late Richard Singleton Kirk, formally of Charleston and later of Mount Pleasant plantation, followed in his steps as a physician. The present owner plants the lands first cultivated by William and Gideon

Pond Bluff PlantationLoch Dhu Plantation

MOUNT PLEASANT PLANTATIONS Kirk Family Broken Brick Terraces at Mount Pleasant Recall Garden for Which Place was Once Famous-Ever in Kirk Family