Evergreen Plantation – Starr – Anderson County

— Evergreen Plantation © Vanessa Kauffmann, 2015 —
(Do Not Use Without Written Consent)

Basic Information

• Location – Savannah Township, Starr, Anderson County

  4800 South Carolina Highway 187, Starr, SC 29684
  

• Origin of name – ?

• Other names – Earle Home

• Current status – Privately-owned event site

Timeline

• 1828 – Earliest known date of existence
  

  In 1828, Samuel Girard Earle (1791-1848) purchased the property from Samuel Smith. He operated the land as a plantation and eventually built grist mills and a cotton gin (1). He also built a brick home located near a spring. His son, Julius Richard, was born here on September 11, 1929; the family later added a second floor made of wood.
  

• 1848 – Samuel Girard Earle passed away and willed the plantation to his oldest living son, Elias John Earle. Elias lived on the plantation in a different house than his father's. Neither structure are still standing (1).
  

  Over the years the plantation's property was subdivided and sold (1).
  

• 1920 – A house on the plantation, called Ingleside, was lost to fire (1).
  

• 1923 – The house that currently stands on the property was built. It was originally knows as the Earle Home (1).
  

• Late 1990s – Ryan Faulkenberry acquired the 40-acre plantation and restored the house (1).
  

— Farm at Evergreen Plantation © Vanessa Kauffmann, 2015 —
(Do Not Use Without Written Consent)

Land

• Number of acres – Several thousand in the mid-1800s (3); 40 acres in 2015
  

• Primary crop – Cotton (1)

Slaves

• Number of slaves – ?

References & Resources

1. Evergreen Plantation - from SCIWAY with the following references:
   – Work Projects Administration, Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves: Volume XIV, South Carolina Narratives, Part 3 (A Public Domain Book)
   
   
   
   – Historic Properties - Downtown Anderson organization
   
   – Historical and Architectural Survey of Anderson County, South Carolina - PDF - National Register of Historic Places, p. 45
   
   – The Harrisons of Greenville County, South Carolina - PDF
   
   – Louise Ayer Vandiver, Traditions and History of Anderson County
   
   

2. Information contributed by Russ Burriss, a Earle family descendant, from:
   H.U. Earle, The Earles of Evergreen (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin, 1984)
   
   

3. John Baylis Earle Family Cemetery Document