Woodville Plantation – St Johns – Richland County

— Hamer Family of Live Oak Plantation, 1904 © —
— Contributed by Margaret M. R. Eastman —
(Do Not Use Without Written Consent)

Basic Information

• Location – Congaree River, St. Johns, Richland County

  Approximately one mile from St. Johns Congaree
  

• Origin of name – ?

• Other names – Live Oak

• Current status – Lands now part of McEntire Air National Guard Station
  

— Fire at Live Oak Plantation, Circa 1910 —
— © Contributed by Margaret M. R. Eastman —
(Do Not Use Without Written Consent)

Timeline

• ? – Earliest known date of existence

• 1746 – House built (6, p. 250)
  

  House built by Thomas Howell (6, p. 250)
  

• ? – Jesse Malachi Howell inherited Woodville Plantation from his grandfather Thomas Howell (6, p. 250).
  

• 1835 – James Hopkins Adams purchased the plantation from the estate of Jesse Malachi Howell. Adams renamed the plantation Live Oak and served as governor of South Carolina from 1854 to 1856 (6, p. 250).
  

  Adams enlarged the house at Live Oak several times (6, p. 250).
  

• 1861 – Governor Adams passed away bequeathing Live Oak to his wife Jane Margaret Scott Adams who was to then pass it to their son John Randolph Adams (6, p. 251).
  

• 1865 – Sherman's troops visited Live Oak but left the house untouched. Troops came upon neighboring Grovewood Plantation first, the home of the Adams' relatives the Westons. Mrs. Caroline Woodward Weston pleaded with the Union officer, who had studied medicine in Paris with her husband Dr. William Weston IV, to spare her home as well as those of her family. Another tradition is that the plantation houses were left untouched because of the presence Masonic symbols (4 and 6, p. 23).
  

  Margaret M. R. Eastman shares information written by a daughter present on that day in 1865, "News that the Yankees were approaching Live Oak came on a Sunday morning just as the family was preparing to go to church. To save their clothing, each person put on as many garments as possible. Not wanting her daughters to be molested, Old Lady had her unmarried daughters climb through a hole in the ceiling into an unfinished loft. When the soldiers arrived, the remaining members of the family congregated in the garden."
  

• 1875 – John Randolph Adams died in this year never owning Live Oak (6, p. 252).
  

• 1883 – Jane Margaret Adams died and left the mansion at Live Oak to her granddaughter Laura Hanahan (6, p. 252).
  

  Adams' heirs disagreed on the division of the rest of plantation's property and the matter was taken to court. The court ordered the property to be sold to the highest bidder. Four Adams children banded together and purchased the land for $15,000. After their purchase, the heirs divided the property into smaller tracts and sold them (6, p. 252).
  

• ? – Laura Hanahan moved to Charleston and sold the plantation house to her uncle James Hopkins Adams, Jr. (6, p. 252).
  

• Circa 1910 – The house was lost to fire (4).
  

• 1910 – James Hopkins Adams, Jr. had financial troubles and sold Live Oak for $8,000 to Robert Picket Hamer. Hamer also purchased half of Kensignton Plantation around the same time (4 and 6, p. 252).
  

• 1940s – The US Government purchased several sections of the former plantation to create McEntire Air National Guard Station (4).
  

Land

• Number of acres – ?

• Primary crop – Cotton (4)

Slaves

• Number of slaves – 192 in 1860 (5, p. 4)

Buildings

• The plantation house was destroyed by fire in 1910. The house was located near the rear, south gate of today's McEntire Air National Guard Station (4).
  

References & Resources

1. Claude Henry Neuffer, editor, Names in South Carolina, Volume I through 30 (Columbia, SC: The State Printing Company)
    Order Names in South Carolina, Volumes I-XII, 1954-1965
    Order Names in South Carolina, Index XIII-XVIII
   

2. Information contributed by Arthur Day: Mary Caroline "Gran-Mary" Lykes Webb - see paragraph 19
   

3. Edwin L. Green, A History of Richland County, SC (Greenville, SC: Southern Historical Press, 1996)
   
   

4. Information contributed by Margaret M. R. Eastman, an Adams family descendant, from:
   Laura Jervey Hopkins, Lower Richland Planters: Hopkins, Adams, Weston, and Related Families of South Carolina, (Columbia, SC: R.L. Bryan Company, 1976)
   

5. Walter Edgar, editor, The South Carolina Encyclopedia (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2006)
   
   

6. Information contributed by Margaret M. R. Eastman, an Adams family descendant, from:
   Virginia Meynard, The History of Lower Richland County and Its Early Planters, (Columbia, SC: R.L. Bryan Company, 2010)