Cainhoy Plantation – Daniel Island – Berkeley County

Basic Information

• Location – Wando River stretching to the Cooper River, St. Thomas Parish, Daniel Island, Berkeley County

  Located on the south side of Clements Ferry Road
  

• Origin of name – Two theories exist:
  

  1: Native American in origin, meaning irrigation ditch. The 1825 Robert Mill's Atlas labels the village Cainhoy (2, pp. VIII: 4, XI:11).
  

  2: The village may have been named for ex-slave Cain Walker who operated a ferry from the Charleston County side of the river. Folks on the Cainhoy side would call "Cain Ahoy" to summon the ferry (2, p. XI:11) (5).
  

• Other names – Cain Hoy; Hartford (7)
  

• Current status – As of 2014, a large, mixed-use development was being planned (4).
  

Timeline

• Circa 1680 – Earliest known date of existence (6)
  

  Joseph Harbin was issued a land grant. Harbin was a merchant in Barbados and never traveled to South Carolina. Instead, Harbin sent his nephew, Andrew Russ, who was living in Massachusetts, to see to his dealings in South Carolina (6).
  

• ? – Andrew Russ inherited the property from his uncle (6).
  

• Circa 1770 – House built (9, p. 187)
  

  A house was constructed using English brick (9, p. 187).
  

• Circa 1920 – W. L. Venning, Jr. owned the plantation, which was known as Hartford Plantation at this time (9, p. 187).
  

• 1930s – Harry Frank Guggenheim purchased a large amount of property, estimated at 10,000 acres, and used it for recreation and timber harvest. He constructed a large house and several outbuildings as well as water filtration and electric generating systems. Guggenheim called the tract Cainhoy Plantation (7, p. 3) (8) (10).
  

• 1971 – Cainhoy Plantation was left to Harry's nephew, Peter Lawston-Johnson, in a family trust, The Harry Frank Guggenheim Trust, for his lifetime (7, p. 3) (8).
  

• 1997 – The Daniel Island Company purchased a large portion, approximately 6,000 acres, of the southern part of the property from The Harry Frank Guggenheim Trust and developed it into a residential community (8).
  

• ? – The Guggenheim descendants formed Cainhoy Land & Timber LLC. In 2014, the family was planning to develop the remaining 9,000 acres of property into a massive mixed-use community (4).
  

Land

• Number of acres – 10,000 in 1937; 15,000 1950s; 9,000 in 2014 (4) (7, p. 3) (8) (10)
  

• Primary crop – ?

Slaves

• Number of slaves – ?

References & Resources

1. 30-15 Plantation File, held by the South Carolina Historical Society
   

2. 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
   

3. 30-14 Plantation File, South Carolina Historical Society
   –  Online Catalog

4. Diane Knich, Size and Quick Pace of Development Biggest Concerns about Cainhoy Plantation (Charleston, SC: Charleston Post & Courier, January 9, 2014)
   

5. Information contributed by Richard Walker, a descendant of Cain Walker.
   

6. Information contributed by Meghan Garmany from:
   Suzannah Smith Miles, The History of the Cainhoy Peninsula (Charleston, SC: Moultrie News, February 19, 2014)

7. City of Charleston, Cainhoy, Charleston, South Carolina - PDF

8. G. Harris Jordan, Cainhoy Imperiled and Future Quality of Life Uncertain, (Charleston, SC: Charleston Mercury)
   

9. Harriett Kershaw Leiding, Historic Houses of South Carolina (Philadelphia, PA: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1921)
   
   

10. Transcript of newspaper article H.F. Guggenheim Builds Fine Home (Charleston, SC: The News and Courier, March 14, 1937) - opens as a Word document - includes detailed description of the house built by Guggenheim | Pictures that ran with article - opens as PDF