Bindon Plantation – Yemassee – Beaufort County

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— Bindon Plantation on the Pocotaligo River, 1900 —
— © Charlotte Hutson Wrenn Richarde, family photograph —
(Do Not Use Without Written Consent)

Basic Information

• Location – Pocotaligo River, Yemassee, Prince William Parish, Beaufort County
  

  Located south of the Town of Yemassee on US 17
  

• Origin of name – ?

• Other names – ?

• Current status – The property was annexed into the town of Yemassee in 2006 so the zoning could be changed from agricultural use to allow development. The property's developer, Bindon Plantation LLC, is facing foreclosure in 2011 due to defaulting on their mortgage. Building has not begun. Three local residents and the Coastal Conservation League sued Yemassee claiming the annexation and subsequent zoning change was illegal. In March 2011, the SC Supreme Court upheld the annexation and in 2012 a conservation easement was placed on the property limiting development to 20 houses (1) (3).
  

— Bindon Plantation Avenue of Oaks © Gazie Nagle, 2014 —
(Do Not Use Without Written Consent)

Timeline

• ? – Earliest known date of existence

  Originally part of old Tomotley Barony

• 1803 – William Galt Martin purchases the property

• ? – House built - the house was burned by Sherman's troops during the Civil War

• 1963 – Robert (Ed) Edward Turner Jr. owned Bindon and committed suicide there in 1963. His son, Ted Turner, sold the plantation in an effort to secure his father's business entities (2, p. 125).

• 2006 – The property was annexed into the town of Yemassee so the zoning could be changed from agricultural use only to allow development. The property's developer was to be Bindon Plantation LLC (1).
  

• 2011 – Hollingsworth Funds became owners of the property when Bindon Plantation defaulted on their mortgage. Building has not begun. Three local residents and the Coastal Conservation League sued Yemassee claiming the annexation and subsequent zoning change was illegal (1) (3).
  

  In March, the SC Supreme Court upheld the annexation but the future of the property is still uncertain (1).
  

• 2012 – A conservation easement was placed on Bindon Property limiting development to 20 houses (3).
  

• 2014 – A portion of Bindon Plantation was recently purchased and the oak avenue (pictured above) has been cleared to bring it back to its original beauty (4).
  

Land

• Number of acres – 1,500 acres when owned by Lorillard, 1,300 acres in 2006 (2, p. 121, 125)

• Primary crop – ?

Owners

• Alphabetical list – Bindon Plantation LLC, Brewton, Cuthbert, Hollingsworth Funds, E.E. Lorillard (?-1932), John McLeod Martin, William Galt and Mary Mikell McLeod Martin, McPherson, Screven, Robert Edward Turner, Jr. (?-1963)
  

Slaves

• Number of slaves – ?

Buildings

• Original house was burned by Sherman's troops. A stucco house with tile roof would later be built (2, p. 121).

References & Resources

1. Juliann Vachon, SC Supreme Court Rules for Yemassee in Bindon Planation Annexation Suit (Beaufort Gazette, March 9, 2011)

2. Robert B. Cuthbert and Stephen G. Hoffius, editors, Northern Money, Southern Land: The Lowcountry Plantation Sketches of Chlotilde R. Martin (Columbia, SC: The University of South Carolina Press, 2009)
   
   

3. Casey Conley, Beaufort County to Preserve Bindon Plantation Property (Beaufort Gazette, May 22, 2012)

4. Information contributed by Gazie Nagle