Beneventum Plantation – Georgetown – Georgetown County

— Beneventum Plantation © Gazie Nagle —
(Do Not Use Without Written Consent)

Basic Information

• Location – Black River, Georgetown, Prince George Winyah Parish, Georgetown County

  Located on Beneventum Road off US 701
  

• Origin of name – One source says the name means "good will come to you." Another says it is loosely translated from Italian to mean "good wind." Officially, Benevento (one of the plantation's other names) is Italian for "welcome." (2, p. 459) (5, p. 30-31)
  

• Other names – Benevento

• Current status – Privately owned
  

— Beneventum Plantation House • National Register of Historic Places, 1978 —

Timeline

• Circa 1830 – Earliest known date of existence

  John Julius Pringle acquired The Grove Plantation which he merged with his Charing Cross Ferry Plantation and called the combined property Beneventum Plantation (2, p. 464).
  

  There was a circa 1756 house on The Grove Plantation when Pringle purchased that property. This house would be added onto over time is the foundation of the current Beneventum Plantation house (2, p. 459).
  

• 1843 – Pringle died and his will stipulated his property be divided among his children. Son Robert Pringle received Beneventum (2, p. 464).
  

• Circa 1863 – Robert Pringle passed away and Beneventum was sold to George A. Trenholm by heirs Elizabeth and Emma Pringle Robert's sisters and nephew John Julius Izard Pringle. Trenholm was the treasurer of the Confederate government (2, p. 464).
  

• 1866 – Trenholm deeded the plantation to his son-in-law William Miles Hazzard (2, p. 464).
  

• 1883 – William Miles Hazzard conveyed Beneventum to Elliot Waight Hazzard (2, p. 464).
  

• 1897 – Elliot Waight Hazzard passed away and his widow Sophia "Lilly" Johnstone Hazzard retained ownership of the plantation. Lilly made her home at Beneventum until 1915 when she moved to the Hazzard winter home, Beaumont, in Asheville, NC (9).
  

• 1916 – Emerson W. Hitchcock purchased 600 acres, which included the house, at Beneventum. The balance of the plantation's acreage had been sold off previously (2, p. 464).
  

• Circa 1918-1958 – Beneventum Plantation had several short-term owners during this period including J. Cornelius Rathbournes, Eloise Dudley Drake, Walter W. Posey Jr., and E.A. Mathiessen (2, p. 464).
  

• 1958 – Fred B. Lee purchased the plantation and owned it for nearly 40 years (2, p. 464).
  

• ? – Randy and Suzanne McClary purchased Beneventum and reside with their children there (2, p. 464).
  

• 2015 – Frank and Janet Brand purchased Beneventum Plantation on March 10th (10).
  

Land

• Number of acres – 1,000 in 1750; 500 in 1756; 600 in 1916 (2)
  

• Primary crop – Rice

Slaves

• Number of slaves – 142 in 1850 (1, p. 3)
  

References & Resources

1. National Register of Historic Places
   – Nomination form - PDF - submitted in 1988
   – Photographs, architectural overview
   

2. Suzanne Cameron Linder and Marta Leslie Thacker, Historical Atlas of the Rice Plantations of Georgetown County and the Santee River (Columbia, SC: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, 2001), pp. 459-464
    Order Historical Atlas of the Rice Plantations of Georgetown County and the Santee River

3. 30-15 Plantation File, held by the South Carolina Historical Society

4. William P. Baldwin Jr., Plantations of the Low Country (Westbrook, ME: Legacy Publishing, 1994)
   
   

5. 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
   

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

7. George C. Rogers, Jr., The History of Georgetown County, South Carolina (Spartanburg, SC: Reprint Company, 1990)
    Order The History of Georgetown County, South Carolina

8. Mansfield Plantation History: Click here
   

9. Information contributed by Ruth Hazzard, a Hazzard family descendent.
   

10. Information contributed by owners Frank and Janet Brand.