Cypress Trees Plantation – Edisto Island – Charleston County

— Cypress Trees Plantation © Gazie Nagle, 2014 —
(Do Not Use Without Written Consent)

Basic Information

• Location – Edisto Island, St. John's Colleton Parish, Charleston County

  1895 Highway 174
  

• Origin of name – Named for the cypress trees found on the plantation (1, Volumes I-XII, p. 74)
  

• Other names – ?

• Current status – Cypress Trees is an active farm with rye, heirloom corn, and rice being grown. Also open as a wedding and special events venue (2017) (4)
  

Timeline

• ? – Earliest known date of existence

• 1728 – Cypress Trees Plantation has been in the Clark-Murray family since this year (2).
  

• 1830 – House built (2)

  It is believed this was the second house built at the plantation as materials used in its construction seem older than the 1830 construction date thus assumed they were reclaimed from a prior house (2).
  

• 1858 – Susan Jane Clark married Joseph James Murray and the plantation has remained in the Murray family since (2).
  

• Early 1900s – The house was extensively remodeled including the staircase being moved so the front of house would face down the avenue of oaks instead of the creek. Running water and indoor plumbing was added, making the house one of the first to do so on the island (2).
  

• Circa 1990 – Jim and Linda Murray became owners Cypress Trees Plantation, the fourth Murray generation to do so. They remodeled the house and opened it as a special events venue (2).
  

Land

• Number of acres – ?

• Primary crop – Indigo and rice in the late 1700s; cotton in the 1800s; rye, heirloom corn, and rice in modern times (2) (4)
  

Slaves

• Number of slaves – 69 circa 1850-1860 by Archibald Clark, Ann Clark, Margaret Wilkinson, and Susan Clark. Although slaves were document before and after this year, this was the largest slave population at any one time at Cypress Trees Plantation (3).
  

References & Resources

1. 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
   

2. History Lessons, Cypress Trees Plantation – Click here
   

3. Information contributed by F. Meggett from the Seventh Population Census of the United States (1850).
   

4. Information contributed by Linda Murray, who along with her husband, became owners of the plantation in the 1990s.
   

Contact Information

• Cypress Tress Plantation
  1895 Highway 174
  Edisto Island, SC 29438
  

  Telephone: 843-869-2100
  Website: Click here