Myrtle Grove Plantation – Mount Pleasant – Charleston County

Basic Information

• Location – Mount Pleasant, Charleston County

  Between Highway 17 and Rifle Range Road (2)
  

• Origin of name – ?

• Other names – ?

• Current status – ?
  

Timeline

• ? – Earliest known date of existence
  

• ? – House was built
  

• ? – Nicholas Venning acquired Myrtle Grove Plantation (2)
  

• ? – Ferdinand and Anne Lucas Venning Gregorie purchased Myrtle Grove Plantation from Anne's brother Nicholas Venning (1).
  

• 1863 – Gregorie served in the Coast Guard during the war and moved Anne, their seven children, and seven house slaves to Clinton (1).
  

• 1866 – The Gregorie family returned to Mount Pleasant to find its residents gone and the African American 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry occupying the town (1).
  

  Soldiers wandered the area and on April 6, 1866, two drunk soldiers tried to gain entry into the Gregorie's house at Myrtle Grove. Guns were drown by the soldiers so Ferdinand grabbed his shotgun firing at the pair. One soldier was shot dead. Ferdinand sought protection and reported the incident to two other military regiments stationed in Mount Pleasant. He was arrested and sent to City Jail in Charleston where he endured horrible conditions (1).
  

  Armed men from the Twenty-first Regiment went to Myrtle Grove invading the house with force with one of the Gregorie daughters being shot and wounded. The family sought safety on the roof of a shed while the soldiers pillaged the house and attempted to burn it down. On April 10, a guard of white troops evacuated the family and Ferdinand was released the following day. He stood trial in a military court at the Citadel and was found not guilty. The family returned to Myrtle Grove Plantation but the African American soldiers vowed revenge and guard of white troops was assigned to protect the family (1).
  

• ? – Gregorie never planted at Myrtle Grove again and took on construction jobs around Charleston. He lost the plantation to an outstanding tax debt of about $250.00 (1).
  

  The house was in poor condition when the Gregories lost the plantation. The house was next occupied by freed slaves and eventually destroyed by fire (1).
  

Land

• Number of acres – 600 acres in late 1800s (1).
  

• Primary crop – Cotton and salt obtained by evaporating sea water and boiling the brine to crystallization (1)
  

• There is a family cemetery located on the plantation's property (2).
  

Slaves

• Number of slaves – ?

Buildings

• The house was damaged by rogue soldiers in 1866 and later destroyed by fire (1).
  

References & Resources

1. Margaret Middleton Rivers Eastman and Edward Fitzsimons Good, Hidden History of Old Charleston (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2010)
   
   

2. Surnamed Gregorie, Origins of the Lineage of the Gregorie Family