Cedar Springs Plantation – Lake Moultrie – Berkeley County

— Cedar Springs Plantation 1939 © Library of Congress —
(Prints & Photographs Division HABS SC,8-PINOP.V,5--1)

Basic Information

• Location – Submerged under Lake Moultrie, St. John's Berkeley Parish, Berkeley County

• Origin of name – ?

• Other names – Buffalo Hole for the sink holes in the area (4)
  

• Current status – In 1939, work began on the Santee Cooper Hydroelectric and Navigation Project. This project displaced many families and communities, and many historic homes were lost as the area was flooded.
  

Timeline

• Circa 1775 – Earliest known date of existence (4)
  

  Philip Porcher acquired the property which would remain in the Porcher family until it was lost to the Santee Cooper Hydroelectric and Navigation Project (4).
  

• 1800 – Philip Porcher died and the plantation was willed to his son, George Porcher (4).
  

• 1804 – A house was built by George Porcher (4).
  

• 1813 – George Porcher was killed in an accident involving his horse at the plantation and his widow, Marianne Porcher, inherited the plantation (4).
  

• 1835 – Marianne Porcher passed away and left Cedar Springs to her son, Dr. John Palmer Porcher (4).
  

• ? – Dr. John Palmer Porcher's son, John Palmer Porcher, Jr., was the next in the family line to own the plantation (4).
  

• 1864 – John Palmer Porcher, Jr. died at the age of 28 leaving a young wife and son. His widow later sold Cedar Springs to a relative, Isaac de C. Porcher (4).
  

• 1865 – The plantation was looted during the Civil War (4).
  

• 1939 – Isaac de C. Porcher's nephews, P. R. Porcher and R. D. Porcher, owned the plantation when construction started on the Santee Cooper Hydroelectric and Navigation Project (4).
  

Land

• Number of acres – ?

• Primary crop – Santee long cotton (hybrid between Upland cotton and Sea Island cotton)
  

Slaves

• Number of slaves – ?

Print Resources

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

2. J. Russell Cross, Historic Ramblin's through Berkeley (Columbia, SC: R.L. Bryan Company, 1985)
    Order Historic Ramblin's through Berkeley

3. Norman S. Walsh, Plantations, Pineland Villages, Pinopolis and Its People (Virginia Beach, VA: Donning Company Publishers, 2007)
    Order Plantations, Pineland Villages, Pinopolis and Its People
   
   
4. Waterman Report of 1939
   
   
5. Photo and floor plan sketch - Library of Congress