POOSHEE PLANTATION St. Julien, Le Noble, and Porcher Families By  Mr. F. M. Kirk

2  Black & White Exterior 1  Black & White Cemetary

Like another Atlantis, Berkeley apparently is destined to yield a part of its most historic section to the waters.  The lakes to be formed by the Santee River under the proposed Santee dam project will cover an area in Berkeley and Orangeburg counties rich in history and tradition.

Here in the lake basins, particularly the Pinopolis basin, lie dozens of plantations that played important parts in Colonial and Revolutionary history.  Many of these plantations have long since been abandoned.  Others have passed into other hands.  Some are still in possession of descendants of the original families.

The section was, at one time, a highly developed and prosperous community.  The late Professor Frederick A. Porcher in a memoir of Upper St. John's, Berkeley country (that section between Pinopolis and Eutawville), published in 1868, lists sixty-six plantations.  In his "Reminiscences of St. Stephen's Parish" the late Samuel DuBose lists fifty- three plantations.

Leaders of Colony

Not all these plantations will be covered.  A large number, however, of those in St. John's will be submerged, and, probably, some of those in St. Stephen's Parish.

In or near the Pinopolis basin are Pooshee, Somerton, Somerset, Wantoot, Northampton, Wampee, Ophir, Woodlawn, Hanover, Chapel Hill, and many others.  As one travels farther on to Eutawville are The Rocks, Walnut Grove, Springfield, Eutaw, Belvidere, Loch Dhu, Pond Bluff, and others.  On these plantations lived the men who gave their names to many families scattered throughout South Carolina.  There lived the Ravenels, Porchers, St. Juliens, Marions, Sinklers, Couturiers, and others.

There also lived the artist John Blake White.  And there lived the soldiers, Marion and Moultrie.  There those eminent botanists, Thomas Walter, Francis Peyre Porcher and Dr. Henry W. Ravenel, experimented.  And from there came such students as Professor Frederick A. Porcher.

Proprietary Gifts

This section is one of the oldest in South Carolina, and was settled only a few years after Charleston was moved to "Oyster Point."  The settlers in the Pinopolis area were chiefly French Huguenots.

Apparently there was no difficulty in securing ample lands from the Lords Proprietors.  Thus, in 1688 the Lords Proprietors granted Wantoot with 1,000 acres to Pierre de St. Julien de Malacare.  In 1705 their lordships granted Pooshee, also, to St. Julien with 1,000 acres.

Pooshee is particularly interesting in that at the present day, almost two hundred and fifty years after its grant to the emigrant St. Julien, it is owned by direct descendants of the original owner.  Only for a brief time has it been out of the hands of the family, and even for that period the family had a pecuniary interest in it.  It is now owned by the two brothers, P. R. and R. D. Porcher, descendants of those two emigrants who had such an important part to play in their community's development: Pierre de St. Julien and Rene Ravenel.  A large potion of the place, including the house site, will be covered with water from the Santee project.

Given Indian Names

Indians were numerous in the section at the time of its settlement, which probably accounts for the name.  The same is probably true of Wampee and Wantoot.

St. Julien sold Pooshee to his bother-in- law, Henry Le Noble, who deeded it in 1714 to his son-in-law, Rene Louis Ravenel, son of the emigrant Rene Ravenel.  A house was built in 1716.

No record is known of what happened to the original structure, but the present house was built in 1804 by another Rene Ravenel.  The western wing was not added until 1852, when Dr. Henry Ravenel, father of the noted botanist, Dr. Henry W. Ravenel, built it for reasons, apparently, utilitarian rather than architectural.

Under careful management Pooshee flourished.  In the prosperous period of nullification, Dr. Henry Ravenel possessed plantations above and below Pooshee along the public road for a distance of fourteen miles, except for a break of a few hundred yards, where the lands of Wantoot Plantation touched the Black Oak road.  Dr. Ravenel attempted to close this break by offering $48,000 for Wantoot with it slaves.  The offer was refuses by Charles Macbeth who, it is said netted in five years $100,000 on the place.

Spring Forms Clear Pool

Today the Pooshee tract consists of some four thousand acres.

Leading from the road from Bonneau to Black Oak church, the avenue is only a few hundred yards from the church, and the locks of the old Santee canal.  Touched by one Santee canal, it will be flooded by another.          Though uninhabited for many years, the house is still in fair state of preservation.  A spring of icy water flows from a hillside a few yards from the house, and forms a pool, transparent as glass.  In former days the spring was bricked in, and part of the wall still remains

Recently a dam has been thrown across an old rice field canal, and, as a result, a lake of some hundred odd acres has been formed. The rich lands of Pooshee have seen the rise and fall of three great staple crops of South Carolina, Indigo, rice and cotton.

Place Self-sufficient

Under the management of Dr. Ravenel the place was almost self-sufficient.  All food was raised to maintain a large force of slaves.  Flocks of sheep were kept, and from them and from cotton, cloth for slaves as well as blankets were manufactured at home.

The following quotation is from H. E. Ravenel's "Ravenel Records," published in 1898:

"The Southern Agriculturist" for July 1831, has a detailed account of the management of Pooshee, written by the editor, Mr. J. D. Legare.  He regarded the various operations there carried on as a model for planters.  He showed that under Dr. Ravenel's system, the productiveness of his lands had been doubled in the course of eleven years . . . A peculiarity of his system was that he did not rotate crops on Pooshee but increased the fertility by heavy applications of manure, produced at home, so that in the year 1831 there were hauled out and spread upon the fields of his plantation an amount of stable manure equal to 4,448 single horse carts..." Other interesting features of Dr. Ravenel's system are given.

Following the custom of many St. John's plantations, the family cemetery is situated only a short distance from the house.  Here lie the remains of many of the St. Juliens and Ravenels.

Cedar SpringsOphir PlantationTwo Dairies of Middle St. John's Berkeley ParishMexico, Peru, and OphirWaterman Report

POOSHEE PLANTATION St. Julien, Le Noble, and Porcher Families Home of St. Julians and Ravenels Century Ago was Called Model for Planters Thousands of Dollars Made Annually