South Island Plantation – Georgetown County
Basic Information
- Location – Georgetown County
- Origin of name – ?
- Other names – North Santee Rice Mill and Dock; Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center Heritage Preserve
- Current status – Part of the Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center Heritage Preserve
Timeline
- ? – Earliest known date of existence
- ? – House built
- 1870s – Thomas Edward Hazzard acquired South Island (2).
- 1894 – Thomas Edward Hazzard died of of malaria fever at the plantation. He left South Island to his son George Waight Hazzard (2).
- Circa 1900 – General Edward Porter Alexander owned much of South Island (4, p. 773).
- 1911 – W.H. "Bill" Yawkey, former owner of the Detroit Tigers, purchased a large amount of land in Georgetown County including South Island (4, p. 773 and 5).
- 1919 – Tom Yawkey, owner of the Boston Red Sox from 1933 to 1976, inherited South Island when his uncle and adopted father Bill Yawkey passed away. Tom's parents died when he was young and his mother's brother adopted him (3 and 5).
- 1976 – Tom Yawkey passed away. He willed 31 square miles of land, including South Island, to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources which created the Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center Heritage Preserve (3 and 5).
Land
- Number of acres – ?
- Primary crop – Rice
Slaves
- Number of slaves – ?
References & Resources
- 30-15 Plantation File, held by the South Carolina Historical Society
– Online Catalog
- Information contributed by descendant Ruth Hazzard.
- Georgetown Lighthouse - from SCIWAY
- Suzanne Cameron Linder and Marta Leslie Thacker, Historical Atlas of the Rice Plantations of Georgetown County and the Santee River
(Columbia, SC: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, 2001)
Order Historical Atlas of the Rice Plantations of Georgetown County and the Santee River - Thomas A. Yawkey Biography and About the Yawkey Foundation
Contact Information
- Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center Heritage Preserve
1 Yawkey Way South
Georgetown, SC 29440
Telephone: 843-546-6814
