Walnut Grove Plantation tells the stories of the free and enslaved people who settled the South Carolina Backcountry and the rest of Britain's American colonies, who fought for independence, and who, in the end, built a new nation. Charles and Mary Moore established the plantation on a 550-acre land grant. The Scots-Irish family Moores raised ten children, including Revolutionary War heroine "Kate" Barry, in the house they built about 1765 and lived in for the next 40 years. In late 1781, Loyalist William "Bloody Bill" Cunningham killed three Patriot soldiers at the plantation and sparked a small skirmish with local militia, which is reenacted each year in early October.
Charles Moore immigrated to Pennsylvania from Ulster (today's Northern Ireland) in the 1750s. He and his family traveled down the Shenandoah Valley's Great Wagon Road into North Carolina and ultimately to the 550-acres of land given them by King George III's government for settling on South Carolina's tough western frontier. Mr. Moore expanded the plantation to 3,000-acres through additional grants and purchases. Like many aspiring Backcountry planters around him, he probably worked as a commercial farmer growing mainly corn, wheat, and tobacco for market in Charles Town. He, his family, and about a dozen enslaved African Americans (named in Mr. Moore's will as Robert, Dinna, Phillis, Nelly, and children Prince, Simon, Fanney, Bob, Tom, Toney, and Dove) did the necessary labor--working the fields, tending the livestock, blacksmithing, cooking, cleaning, and textile making--to make the plantation a success.
In 1961, Thomas Moore Craig, Sr. and his wife Lena Jones Craig, descendants of the Moore family, donated Walnut Grove Plantation with eight acres of land to the Spartanburg County Foundation in a special trust fund. The Association is the sponsor for the trust. On October 15, 1967, the restoration was dedicated and opened to the public.
We had lunch in Greenville, SC at a little place called "Word of Mouth"
 |
| beautiful cookies and pastries |
Posts
