Bluff Plantation – Combahee River – Colleton County

— Oaks at Bluff Plantation © Brandon Coffey —
(Do Not Use Without Written Consent)

Basic Information

• Location – Combahee River, St. Bartholomew's Parish, ACE Basin, Colleton County

  3547 Combahee Road
  

• Origin of name – Heyward built his home on a high bluff over looking the Combahee River (2, p. 61)
  

• Other names – Plum Hill

• Current status – ?

— Avenue of Oaks at Bluff Plantation © Gazie Nagle —
(Do Not Use Without Written Consent)

Timeline

• ? – Earliest known date of existence

• ? – Nathaniel Heyward owned Bluff Plantation and used it as his primary residence (2, p. 61).
  

• ? – House built

  Nathaniel Heyward built a house prior to 1828 (2, p. 62).
  

• 1851 – Nathaniel Heyward died and left Bluff Plantation to his son Arthur Heyward (2, p. 62).
  

• 1852 – Arthur Heyward passed away and his wife Maria Louisa Blake Heyward inherited his estate (2, p. 63).
  

• 1854 – Maria Louisa died and her will named two family members to manage her estate which was left to her two young sons Walter Blake Heyward and Daniel Blake Heyward (2, p. 63).
  

• ? – Daniel Blake Heyward became sole owner of Bluff Plantation when he became an adult (2, p. 63).
  

• 1870 – Daniel Blake Heyward died leaving the plantation to his widow Louisa Patience Blake Heyward (2, p. 63).
  

• ? – Daniel and Louisa's daughter Anne Louise Heyward inherited Bluff when her mother died (2, p. 63).
  

• 1915 – Anne Heyward sold the plantation to the Combahee Corporation. The Combahhe Corporation tried unsuccessfully to cultivate the land to grow upland crops (2, p. 63).
  

• 1923 – A. Felix DuPont, who was a large stockholder of the Combahee Corporation, took over ownership (2, p. 63 and 3, p. 208).
  

• 1946 – DuPont sold the property to the Lane family (2, p. 63).
  

• ? – Earl Fain Jr acquired the plantation (3, p. 208).
  

• 1978 – Fain sold Bluff to a partnership of sportsmen (3, p. 208).
  

• 1993 – A portion of the film Forrest Gump were filmed at the plantation including the famous "run, Forrest, run" scene.

• Circa 1995 – Bobby Hood purchased most of the shares of Bluff Plantation from his fellow partners. The plantation was subdivided into three sections with the remaining two other partners each taking a section. These two sections were retained by J. Henry Fair Jr, who called his piece Rose Hill and Dr. Harry B. Gregorie Jr, whose section is now known as Plum Hill (3, p. 208).
  

— Praise House at Bluff Plantation © Gazie Nagle, 2016 —
(Do Not Use Without Written Consent)

Land

• Number of acres – 1,200 in 2009 (3, p. 208)
  

• Primary crop – Rice (2, p. 62)
  

• The tomb of Nathaniel Heyward is at Bluff Plantation (2, p. 61)
  

• The plantation boasts two avenues of oaks.
  

• Hood granted a conservation easement on Bluff Plantation to Ducks Unlimited (3, p. 208).
  

— Second Avenue of Oaks at Bluff Plantation © Gazie Nagle —
(Do Not Use Without Written Consent)

Owners

• Chronological list – Nathaniel Heyward (?-1851); Arthur Heyward (1851-1852); Maria Louisa Blake Heyward (1852-1854); Walter Blake Heyward and Daniel Blake Heyward (1854-?); Daniel Blake Heyward (?-1870); Louisa Patience Blake Heyward (1870-?); Anne Louise Heyward (?-1915); Combahhe Corporation (1915-1923); A. Felix DuPont (1923-1946); Lane (1946-?); Earl Fain Jr (?-1978); Sportsman Partnership (1978-?); Bobby Hood (1995-?)

Slaves

• Number of slaves – 119 under Nathaniel Heyward (2, p. 61)
  

— Entrance to Rose Hill Section © Gazie Nagle, 2013 —
(Do Not Use Without Written Consent)

Buildings

• In 1931, the house built by Nathaniel Heyward was gone (3, p. 207).
  

• Bobby Hood built a three-story house in the mid-1990s (3, p. 208).
  

• Many of the plantation's slave cabins are still on the property. One has been restored and is used as a guest house (3, p. 208).
  

— Entrance to Plum Hill Section © Gazie Nagle, 2013 —
(Do Not Use Without Written Consent)

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. Suzanne Cameron Linder, Historical Atlas of the Rice Plantations of the ACE River Basin - 1860 (Columbia, SC: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, 1995)
    Order Historical Atlas of the Rice Plantations of the ACE River Basin - 1860
   

3. 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)
    Order Northern Money, Southern Land: The Lowcountry Plantation Sketches of Chlotilde R. Martin
   

4. Lucius G. Fishburne, Plantation Notes, St. Bartholomew's Parish, 1960, held by the South Carolina Historical Society
   

5. Carolina W. Todd and Sidney Wait, South Carolina: A Day at a Time (Orangeburg, SC: Sandlapper Publishing Company, 2008)
    Order South Carolina: A Day at a Time