— Chicora Wood Plantation © Mrs. Johnie Rivers —

Basic Information

• Location – Pee Dee River, Plantersville, Prince George Winyah Parish, Georgetown County
  

  12 miles northeast of Georgetown on County Road 52

• Origin of name – ?

• Other names – Matanza (until 1853)

• Current status – Privately owned

Timeline

• Mid 1700s – Earliest known date of existence - Jamie Constance shares, "There is very convincing architectural archeology evidence that the smaller wing on the north side was a flanker of a mid 1700s house that burned sometime around 1798. This flanker survived the fire and was attached to the new section which was built before 1809. The brick foundation of the earlier house along with burned embers are still in the ground."
  

• 1809 – House built sometime before this year

• 1838 – House remodeled by Robert Francis Withers Allston

• 1853 – The Allstons changed the name of Matanza to Chicora Wood.
  

• 1984 – House purchased by Jamie W. and Marcia Constance whom immediately began a major two and a half year restoration.
  

Land

• Number of acres – 1,400

• Primary crop – Rice

• Primary crop today – Grass turf

Owners

• Alphabetical list – Robert Francis Withers Allston; Andrews; Jamie W. and Marcia Constance (1894-Present); Pringle; Rose; Simons; Torrens; Waddell; Waring; Young
  

Slaves

• Number of slaves – 600

Buildings

• Plantation house – Photograph, 2003

Web Resources

• National Register of Historic Places
  – Nomination form - PDF - submitted in 1972
  – Photographs, architectural overview
  

Print Resources

• Initial references: 1, 4

• William P. Baldwin, Jr., Plantations of the Low Country: South Carolina 1697-1865 (Greensboro, NC: Legacy Publications, 1987).
  

• J.H. Easterby, Professor of History, College of Charleston, Editor, The South Carolina Rice Plantation As Revealed In The Papers Of Robert Francis Withers Allston (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2004).
  

• Suzanne Cameron Linder and Marta Leslie Thacker (with preliminary research by Agnes Leland Baldwin), Historical Atlas of the Rice Plantations of Georgetown County and the Santee River (Columbia: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, 2001), pp. 335-340.
  

• Catherine Campani Messmer, South Carolina's Low Country: a past preserved (Orangeburg, SC: Sandlapper Pub., 1988).
  

• George C. Rogers, Jr., The History of Georgetown County, South Carolina (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1970).
  

Notes

• South Carolina Plantations extends a special thanks to Mr. Jamie W. Constance for his invaluable assistance verifying and contributing to the information on this page and for being a faithful guardian of Chicora Wood.
  

More about Georgetown County

• Learn more about historic Georgetown County, including the lovely town of Georgetown SC. We have helpful guides to Georgetown SC history and Georgetown SC libraries and museums – plus Georgetown SC restaurants, Georgetown SC bed & breakfasts, Georgetown SC hotels, and Georgetown SC real estate.