Dyches Mill Plantation – Baldock – Allendale County

Basic Information

• Location – Baldock, Allendale County

• Comments – The original owner William Dyches was a devout Loyalist who fled North Carolina to Orangeburg District, South Carolina – a Loyalist stronghold during the early years of the Revolution. He moved there with his in-laws, William and Nancy Everitt. Dyches served in the Loyalist militia but later pledged his allegiance to the freedom cause. His first wife died; he then had a common-law marriage to Leah Brooker who administered his estate and probably sold the plantation to Dr. Elijah Gillette. She changed the spelling to Dicks, giving rise to the present-day Dicks family of Barnwell County, South Carolina.
  

• Origin of name – William Dyches and his son George operated a saw mill on what is now called Miller's Creek. The mill was powered by what was then a brand new invention, the steam engine. It was quite a profitable operation, and there are remnants of the old mill on the land today.
  

• Other names – ?

• Current status – Owned by Jimmy Elkins (2005)

Timeline

• ? – Earliest known date of existence

• ? – House built

Land

• Number of acres – ?

• Primary crop – ?

Owners

• Alphabetical list – William Dyches; Jimmy Elkins (2005); Dr. Elijah Gillette; Lavinia Gillett
  

Slaves

• Number of slaves – ?

Buildings

• ?

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. Alexania Easterling Lawton and Minnie Reeves Wilson, Allendale on the Savannah, (Bamberg, SC: Bamberg Herald Printers, 1970)