Montpelier Plantation – Pendleton – Anderson County

— Montpelier Plantation © Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress —

Basic Information

• Location – Anderson County

  3022 Old Greenville Highway/SC 88 east of Pendleton

• Origin of name – Samuel Maverick named Montpelier, after his paternal grandmother, Catherine Coyer Maverick's, hometown in France (4).
  

• Other names – Maverick

• Current status – Privately owned with the plantation's land being subdivided among the Riggins family (6)
  

Timeline

• 1787 – Earliest known date of existence (4)
  

  Samuel Maverick received in a land grant for 126 acres (4).
  

• 1800 – House built around this time by Samuel Maverick to be his summer home. The house had tall columns and iron balconies (4).
  

• 1810 – Samuel Maverick moved his family from Pendleton and made Montpelier their permanent residence (4).
  

• 1850 – House burned (4)
  

  Samuel's wife died before the house burned. He along with his daughter Elizabeth and her husband William Van Wyck rebuilt the house (pictured above) that is still standing on a knoll near the original homesite (4).
  

• Circa 1928 – Christopher Riggins purchased Montpelier (5)
  

• ? – Barry Riggins became owner of Montpelier (6)
  

Land

• The family burying ground is on the property on a knoll 3/4 mile from the house.
  

• Number of acres – 126 in 1787 (4)
  

• Primary crop – Cotton and grapes; the first bail of cotton to sail to England from Montpelier was returned because it still contained the seeds (4)
  

Owners

• Alphabetical list – Anderson; Laughton; Samuel Maverick; Christopher Riggins; Barry Riggins (2013); William and Elizabeth Van Wyck
  

Slaves

• Number of slaves – ?

Buildings

• In 2013, three houses belonging to the Riggins family are on the plantation's property with plans for a fourth house to be built (6).
  

• Monica Bone shares, "I had my wedding reception right there in the front yard of Montpelier. There is a big oak tree right dead center of the front yard that Thomas Jefferson gave Samuel Maverick as a house warming gift. My husband and I bought 12 acres from the family so we can build near the plantation."
  

  "There are eight rooms in the main house and a big hallway with a grand staircase. The original doors still remain all over the house. There are double doors for all the exits in the downstairs rooms and main entrance. Maverick may have placed them to make the house look elegant but since he was in a wheelchair that could be why the doors that to go from room to room are so wide and tall."
  

  "The house also has its original floors. In one room you can get splinters in your feet if you are not careful. Such a beautiful home!"
  

References & Resources

1. National Register of Historic Places
   – Nomination form - Pendleton Historic District - PDF - submitted in 1970
   – Photographs, architectural overview
   

2. 30-15 Plantation File, held by the South Carolina Historical Society

3. 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
   

4. Information contributed by Ellen Maury Cassidy
   

5. Information contributed by R. Aaron Riggins

6. Information contributed by Monica Bone