Belmont Plantation – Cross Keys – Union County
— Rear of Belmont Plantation © Contributed by Grant Hayter-Menzies —
NOTE: Belmont was not a working plantation but considered to be a country estate where the Grimké family lived while Judge Grimké's working plantation, Quarter Plantation, was nearby (3).
Basic Information
- Location – Cross Keys, Union County
On a high hill west of Cross Keys near the Spartanburg County line (1, p. 65)
- Origin of name – ?
- Other names – ?
- Current status – ?
Timeline
- ? – Earliest known date of existence
- Prior to 1790 – House built
Judge John Faucheraud Grimké built a summer house he called Belmont. The bricks used in its construction were of poor quality and the "walls disintegrated" (1, p. 65).
- 1819 – Judge Grimké passed away (3).
- 1838 – On January 1, James Lambright purchased approximately 300-400 acres of land from Mary Smith Grimké, John's widow, for $1,200.00 (2) (3).
- 1842 – Lambright built a large two-story house. He continuted to call his plantation Belmont (2).
- Circa 1860 – The Dillards purchased Belmont (2).
Land
- Number of acres – 300-400 in 1838 (2)
Slaves
- Number of slaves – ?
Lore claims Belmont's slaves were afraid of the house at night because of the many trees that surrounded it (2).
Buildings
- The house built by Grimké was of poor construction and deteriorated (1, p. 65).
- Lambright built a two-story house on the property in 1842. This house was still standing in the late 1950s (2).
References & Resources
- Allan D. Charles, Narrative History of Union County South Carolina
(Greenville, SC: A PRESS Printing Company, 1997)
Order Narrative History of Union County South Carolina - Information contributed by Grant Hayter-Menzies, some of which came from a newspaper article by Carl May published in the Spartanburg Journal and Herald on April 5, 1955.
- Information contributed by Louise W. Knight who is writing a biography of the Grimké sisters for publication in the fall of 2018.
