Pimlico Plantation – Kittredge – Berkeley County

Basic Information

• Location – Western branch of the Cooper River, Kittredge, Berkeley County

  Located off US 52 on Cypress Gardens Road
  

• Comments – The property was seized by the state after the American Revolution because of Tory ownership.
  

• Origin of name – Name is of Indian origin

• Other names – Gadsden, Gadsden Lands, Mepshew, Kecklico

• Current status – Residential community called Pimlico Plantation
  

Timeline

• 1681 – Earliest known date of existence with a grant to Colleton family

• 1809 – Elias Ball combined Kecklico Plantation, Mepshew Plantation, and Pimlico Plantation. He called the combined property Pimlico Plantation (Northern Money Southern Land, p. 249).
  

• ? – House built by Elias Ball (Northern Money Southern Land, p. 248).
  

• 1838 – Mr. and Mrs. Ball were lost at sea. Leaving no direct heirs, it took several years for their estate to be settled (Northern Money Southern Land, p. 250).
  

• 1844 – Pimlico was sold at public auction for $40,000.00 to Thomas Bennett, Jr., who was the governor of South Carolina from 1820 to 1822 (Northern Money Southern Land, p. 250).
  

• 1852 – Bennett sold Pimlico to James Gadsden (Northern Money Southern Land, p. 250).
  

• 1858 – After Gadsden's death, James Poyas purchased Pimlico (Northern Money Southern Land, p. 250).
  

• 1883 – The property was conveyed to Francis William Heyward (Northern Money Southern Land, p. 250).
  

• Early 1900s – Pimlico was owned by several timber companies (Northern Money Southern Land, p. 250).
  

• 1925 – Pimlico was purchased by G.D.B. Bonbright for his family's winter home. He found the house built by Ball in such disrepair, he had a new house built instead of restoring it. Bonbright also owned Point Comfort Plantation (Northern Money Southern Land, p. 250).
  

• 1941 – Bonbright died in 1939 and his wife sold Pimlico to Powel Crosley, Jr. (Northern Money Southern Land, p. 251).
  

• 1942 – It is believed that Crosley never lived at Pimlico and sold it to the South Carolina Public Service Authority, also called Santee Cooper. Santee Cooper purchased many properties along the Cooper River for the development of Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie. Although many of the properties are now under the lakes, Pimlico was spared. Santee Cooper had the deed to the property changed to give the seller, Santee Cooper, "the right to themselves to flow the property without accountability." This was done to protect Santee Cooper from future owners filing lawsuits that could arise due to flooding (Northern Money Southern Land, p. 251).
  

• ? – P.O. Mead, Sr. purchased Pimlico. The Meads lived at Pimlico until 1948 (Northern Money Southern Land, p. 251).
  

• 1948-1956 – The property yet again passed through several hands (Northern Money Southern Land, p. 252).
  

• 1956 – Reeves Broadcasting Corporation purchased the property and began plans to develop it into a residential community (Northern Money Southern Land, p. 252).
  

• 1996 – The Bonbright house was demolished. Although most of the property had been developed into a housing community, the plantation house and four acres surrounding it had remained untouched until this point. In 1989, Hurricane Hugo had severely damaged the house which lead to the decision to have it razed (Northern Money Southern Land, p. 252).
  

Land

• Number of acres – 2,248 in 1810 (Northern Money Southern Land, p. 249), 1,779 in 1883 (Northern Money Southern Land, p. 250)

• Primary crop – Rice (Slaves in the Family)

Owners

• Alphabetical list – Elias Ball (1809-1838), Thomas Bennett, Jr. (1844-1852), G.D.B. Bonbright (1925-1939), Mrs. G.D.B. Bonbright (1939-1941), Boone, Colleton (1681-?), Powel Crosley, Jr. (1941-1942), William B. Flynn (1930), James Gadsden (1852-1858), Gervais, Francis William Heyward (1883-?), James Russell Loyal, P.O. Mead, Sr. (?-1948), James Poyas (1858-?), Santee Cooper (1942-?), Thomas
  

Slaves

• Number of slaves – ?

Buildings

• The house built by Elias Ball in the early 1800s was in a state of disrepair when Bonbright purchased Pimlico. Bonbright choose to build a new house than try to repair it (Northern Money Southern Land, p. 248).

Web Resources

• ?

Print Resources

• 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)
  
  

• Edward Ball, Slaves in the Family (New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 1998)
  
  

• Ann Shreve Norris, Pimlico Plantation: Now and Long Ago: St. John's, Berkeley, Parish, South Carolina (Self Published, 1994)
   Order Pimlico Plantation: Now and Long Ago: St. John's, Berkeley, Parish, South Carolina
  
  
• 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
  

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

• John Beaufain Irving, A Day on Cooper River (1842) (Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2010)
  
  

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

• Sankofa's Plantation Data Collection