Simril Plantation – Newport – York County

Basic Information

• Location – Allison Creek, 4220 Old York Road, Newport, York County

  George Feindel shares this location description:
  "Simril Plantation was on Old York Road, near modern day Newport, SC, York County SC. The Simril's owned land from Old York Road to Allision Creek." (1)
  

• Origin of name – For owner

• Other names – Simrill, Simrel

  "In the early 20th century, as Jim Crow laws divided the South, Spenser [Simrell]'s great-grandfather added a second 'L' to become Simrill, obscuring the connection to the family's slave-owning history and prompting generations of Simrills to speculate on the motive." (5)
  

• Current status – ?

Timeline

• 1752 – Earliest known date of existence
  

  173 acres was surveyed in North Carolina for Joseph Simril (4, p. 68)
  

• 1763 – After the French and Indian War, the Catawba Indian Nation was granted 144,000 acres in present day Lancaster and York counties South Carolina. The Simril property seems to have been part of this acreage (4, p. 68)
  

• Circa 1785 – Joseph Simril and William Berry are documented as having 173 acres along Allison Creek. This property was part of the 99-year leases issued on the Catawba Indian Nation's reservation in South Carolina (4, p. 68)
  

• 1790 – James Simril had 155 acres that had been the western part of the original Simril tract (4, p. 68)
  

• 1860 – Hugh Simril was owner (2)
  

• ? – House built - demolished circa 2006 (3)
  

Land

• Number of acres – 173 in 1752 and 1785 (4, p. 68), 155 in 1790 (4, p. 68)
  

• Primary crop – ?
  

Owners

• Chronological list – Joseph Simril; Catawba Indian Nation; Joseph Simril and William Berry; Hugh Simril
  

Slaves

• Number of slaves – 26 in 1860, most of which were relatives of Rev. Elias Hill (2)
  – 28 in 1864 (7)
  

  1871 – Rev. Elias Hill, who had been born into slavery at William Hill's Iron Plantation, and his niece Harriet Simril testified against the Klan in federal court (2)(5)
  

References & Resources

1. Information contributed by George Feindel.
   

2. Spenser Simrill, UGA, English Alum Spenser Simrill's Blueprint for Racial Healing
   

3. Simril House - Roots And Recall
   

4. Excerpt pages from Leasing Away a Nation: The Legacy of Catawba Indian Land Leases by Louise Pettus - PDF posted Roots And Recall
   

5. Ian Davis-Leonard, An 'L' and a painful American era separated SC's Simrils from Simrills. Now they gather yearly. - PDF - (The Post and Courier, 2025)
   

6. Once Removed: An American Family Reunion - 8-episode podcast docuseries released in 2024 by Spenser Simrill and Alvin Cowan
   

7. Transcript of The Simril(l)s: A Family in Black and White - by CNN, aired in 2025