Woodlands Plantation – Midway – Bamberg County

Basic Information

• Location – Midway, Bamberg County

  On US 78, three miles south of Bamberg, near the community of Midway
  

• Origin of name –
  

• Other names – Simms Place, William Gilmore Simms Estate
  

• Current status – Designated a National Historic Landmark, Woodlands is open by appointment and used by the Simms family for hunting and retreats. In addition, "many descendants of the enslaved people at Woodlands continue to live on or near original parts of the plantation" (2).
  

Timeline

• 1821 – Earliest known date of existence
  

  "Starting in 1821, [Nash] Roach began buying property in the Barnwell District that would become Woodlands Plantation" (2).
  

• ? – House built
  

• 1836 – Nash Roach's daughter, Chevillette Eliza married author William Gilmore Simms. The Simms family made there home at Woodlands Plantation (2).
  

• 1862 – House was burned to the ground but quickly rebuilt (2).
  

• 1865 – The house burned once again but by whom remains unclear. A third house was built at the plantation and completed in 1867 (2).
  

• 1870 – William Gilmore Simms died at Woodlands Plantation (1, p. 3).
  

Owners

• Chronological list – Nash Roach; William Gilmore Simms; Mrs. Mary Simms Oliphant the estate of William Gilmore Simms (1970)
  

Slaves

• Number of slaves – In 1830, Roach owned 23 male and 23 female slaves. In 1845, he wrote that he had 62 "Barnwell Negroes." Between the years of 1867 and 1874, the Woodlands Plantation Book records the "Births of Negroes" at 46. At the end of the Civil War, in 1865, Woodlands had 70 black people enslaved (2).
  

Land

• Number of acres – ?
  

• Crops – Corn, cotton, potatoes, rice, sugar cane, wheat
  

• Livestock – Sheep
  

References & Resources

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

2. Shared History: A site for those associated with the Woodlands Plantation - Felicia Dryden
   

3. William Gilmore Simms, 1806-1870 - biography
   

4. William Gilmore Simms Society
   

5. Woodlands' Families Scholarship Fund - PDF

6. Jane Ockershausen, The South Carolina One-Day Trip Book (McLean, VA: EPM Publications, 1998)