Rose Hill Plantation Rose Hill Plantation Rose Hill
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
RoseRoseRose HillHillHill PlantationPlantationPlantation The UUThe nion County Home of South CarCarh olina’solina’solina’s “F“F“Firirire-Eating” Govvvererernor TTnor odaodaoday Is a SSy tttatatate PPe arararkkk Article & Photos by Jason Peevy he Fire-Eater fury is gone. Allega- tions of murder, deadly duels and T downtown shootouts have been re- duced to echoes of century-old rumors. Ante-bellum honor, the horrors of sla- very and the fervor for secession all have vanished with the beautiful and pungent landscaped rose gardens that once cov- ered the front lawn and gave this his- toric landmark its name. All that re- mains is Rose Hill. Rose Hill Plantation, serenely situ- ated in rural Union County near the Sumter National Forest, was built by “Secession Governor” William Henry Gist in 1832. It is now a South Carolina State Historic Site. Interestingly, Rose Hill is not where secession began, but where it ended. The mansion survived The Gist family Bible and other period items are kept on a the Civil War and Sherman’s southern marble parlor table that suggests the statesman’s wealth. rampage because the Broad River was in flood stages and the Union troops could not get women being taken care of, coming down the stairs through. It survived 50 years of deterioration after and making grand entrances . it was not like that the Gist family abandoned the house and the prop- at all. It was a working environment. There were erty was purchased by the federal government—to livestock and slave overseers. There were menus and be used as a bombing range during World War II. cooking in the kitchen and people polishing the sil- Rose Hill’s rescue and restoration culminated with ver. No one was sitting around with her hand over its dedication as a state park December 20, 1960, her forehead on the fainting chair.” exactly 100 years from the day Gist signed the Ordi- nance of Secession and officially separated South ist was a militant radical southern nationalist, Carolina from the Federal Union. labeled a “Fire-Eater” in his day, and was ei- Tour the mansion and you almost can see a G ther a southern hero or a despicable villain, southern belle at the top of the signature spiral stair- depending on whom you ask. The illegitimate son of case, wearing a flowing dress fashioned from curtains a Charleston merchant, Gist sued to obtain his ripped down during the war. You can smell food from father’s name and got kicked out of college for boy- the busy kitchen out back—enough to feed the fam- cotting the cafeteria. In a Fourth of July toast in what ily and more than 170 slaves. You can feel the wood is now Union in 1851—nine years before South Caro- carving and molding in the parlor, symbols of wealth. lina seceded and seven before he was elected gover- You can hear the fiery gentleman at the bottom of nor—Gist said, “South Carolina . cannot be se- the stairs saying sternly, “Frankly, my dear. .” duced by federal gold or intimidated by federal bayo- “We get the Gone With the Wind stuff all the nets. She will secede.” He arrived in fanfare, with time,” said Rose Hill park superintendent Brenda talk of secession, and left in welfare, his plantation Majors-Strole. “But movies like that give a lot of false dropping in value 93 percent during the Civil War impressions. The glorious, glamorous images of and his son and beloved first cousin killed in action. Winter 2002-03 53 His grandfather William Gist moved to South would become the center of Gist’s plantation and the Carolina from Maryland in the 1760s and served the nucleus of his future land acquisitions. South Carolina Royal Government as a surveyor. He Rose Hill took four years to complete. In the remained loyal to Great Britain during the Revolu- meantime, Gist’s fire began to burn over. His prom- tion, joined the Loyalist militia and was captured ise, and his life, began to unravel shortly after the twice. He was tried for treason but bribed the only death of his first child at birth in 1829. His second witness against him, and was exiled to England for child, Maria, was born in April 1830, but his wife seven years. When he returned to South Carolina died 11 days later. She was 18 years old. Two years after the revolution, he ran a mercantile business in later, Gist married Mary Elizabeth Rice. Charleston and rebuilt much of his wealth, although he vainly petitioned the state legislature three times efore the first gun was drawn on July 1, 1833, to restore his citizenship. William Gist died in 1802, according to The Narrative History of Union leaving the mercantile business and considerable B County by Allan D. Charles, Gist and his 17- wealth and property in Union District to his sons. year-old brother-in-law Samuel Rice had the town of Gist’s father Francis Fincher Gist died at 40, Union in a frenzy. The Fire-Eater was about to enter but before his death was elected to the state legisla- the public arena. The heat was on. ture and bought three tracts of land near the Tyger Samuel Rice apparently had his honor called River, where Rose Hill is located. He moved to Union into question over a lady by Barham F. Bobo, a Union District from Charleston in 1811, four years after his store owner. Rice and several friends happened upon illegitimate son was born to Mary Bobo in Columbia and beat him with Boyden. Francis and his brother walking sticks. Bobo threatened re- Nathaniel funneled their mercan- venge. He returned to Union and tile profits into property purchases waited, fuming. and became rich landowners. Gist and his young brother-in- Little is known of William law came into town, both armed with Henry Gist’s childhood or his pistols. Gist said they “had no idea of mother, but the boy was acknowl- touching Mr. Bobo, but if he touches edged by his father and came un- us, we will kill him.” They walked der his father’s control before the past Bobo’s store, where Bobo sat on elder Gist died in 1819. Uncle Na- the porch. Bobo, carrying a walking thaniel, also living in Union Dis- cane, met them in the street. When trict, became the boy’s guardian. he got close, Gist and Rice drew their Nathaniel successfully petitioned pistols. One of Rice’s friends took the Charleston District Court of Rice’s pistol away and tried to re- Equity to allow his late brother’s strain him. When Rice pulled away son to assume the Gist name. and drew a second pistol, Gist stepped The fire was almost certainly in to stop the youth. Bobo seized the in their veins. Nathaniel named opportunity and struck Rice with the his own son States Rights. He sent both William cane, drawing blood. Rice’s brother William came Henry and States Rights off to college to study law, from the crowd and jumped Bobo. Gist released the William Henry at South Carolina College in Colum- bloodied Samuel Rice, who drew a third pistol and bia and States Rights at the new Harvard Law approached Bobo, who was still tangling with Will- School. Both returned to Union to practice—William iam. Rice fired at point-blank range. Bobo fell dead. earlier than expected. William led a boycott of The showdown evidently was viewed as a chiv- Steward’s Hall at the college after the trustees im- alrous settlement to a dispute. Rice was charged with posed compulsory boarding regulations. Poor food murder and Gist with accessory, but neither charge was one of the students’ gripes, and in 1827 they all stuck. Rice, found guilty of manslaughter, later went were expelled. Gist studied for the bar on his own, to Alabama and became a judge on the Alabama Su- and passed. preme Court. The state declined to prosecute Gist. Thus equipped with the property left to him by Construction on Rose Hill was complete. Gist his father, his father’s last name and his law degree, and his new wife Mary settled into their lives as Gist married Louisa Bowen of Laurens in 1828. He planters, with more than 32 slaves working the cot- began construction of Rose Hill, importing bricks ton, Indian corn, wheat, oats, barley, peas and Irish from Switzerland that were carried by wagon from potatoes, and tending a small orchard. Gist was suc- Charleston. The three-story Federal-style mansion cessful as a planter, and the creative and talented 54 Sandlapper Mary, who would bear him 12 children and outlive sion convention on December 20, 1860, signed an or- the future governor, thrived at Rose Hill. From the dinance that severed all bonds between South Caro- 1830s to the 1860s, Gist added some 6,783 acres to lina and the federal government. By February 1861, the estate. By the time South Carolina seceded in six other states had seceded and the Confederate 1860, he owned 179 slaves. In 1850, the plantation States of America had been formed. On April 12, was valued at $34,500; by 1860, it was worth $80,000. Confederate batteries opened fire on Fort Sumter. The plantation succeeded despite Gist’s en- tanglements with the law. Less than a year after the wo battles will close the war and our inde- showdown in Union, Gist was indicted for murder pendence will be acknowledged,” Gist pre- for alleged participation in a duel, but acquitted.