Tom’s Tidbit #14 – “the draining years”

When the judge’s hammer fell on 31 May 1932, over 150 years of agricultural development under the Townsend family, came to an end. Under a succession of family members, the original King’s Grant of 460 acres had been expanded to over 3,000 acres and during Edisto’s “Golden Era” had been widely viewed as the most progressive and profitable of the island’s plantations. The arrival of the infamous boll weevil in 1918 ended Bleak Hall’s sea island cotton legacy as the late maturing variety was extremely susceptible to the weevil and no effective pesticides to combat the plague of invaders, had been developed.

Mary Caroline Townsend Johnstone and her husband Winthrop, made a vain attempt to shift from cotton to truck crops (cabbage & potatoes) as did the other Edisto planters. Like the other Edisto gentrified planters, who had grown wealthy with sea island cotton, they failed to make the conversion to more mundane crops. In the Townsend’s case, a civil action brought by the Federal Farm Credit Bureau forced the sale of Bleak Hall on the court house steps to avoid foreclosure. The sale was held on 14 July 1932 and a group of investors, The Harmon Corporation, headed by W. Burke Harmon, purchased the plantation for the sum of $18,000.

Legend has it that Victor Morawetz, general counsel for the Santa Fe Railroad and one of the most distinguished lawyers in the United States, learned of the sale and so advised his longtime friend, Andrew Carnegie, of Bleak Hall’s availability. Morawetz restored Fenwick Hall (Head Quarters) on John’s Island, the Pink House on Chalmers Street in Charleston and later owned Seabrook Island across the North Edisto from Bleak Hall. James Cowan Greenway and his wife Harriett Lauder Greenway (Andrew Carnegie’s niece) purchased the property from The Harmon Corporation on 10 March 1933 for $35,000. This $17,000 gain on a property held for only eight months was a great return during the height of the depression, but the land price seems paltry by today’s real estate values.

As I mentioned in an earlier missal, my personal introduction to the Greenway family had been a chance meeting with James C. Greenway Jr. in 1948. During the following 65 years, I had wondered who the mysterious Dr. Greenway was and how he acquired the resources to purchase a failed plantation during the depression, make significant improvements and hold the property until 1957. Dr. Greenway passed to spirit at age 98 in 1976. Inquiries to my island historical mentors, J.G Murray, Marion Whaley Sr, etal, only ended with “oh, he is a wealthy Connecticut doctor who teaches at Yale”. This misunderstanding of Dr. Greenway’s background and social prominence would end when Honey & I began our genealogical research in early 2013, preparatory to my talks on Botany Bay’s history with the volunteers.

Tom’s Tidbit # 13 – “Thanksgiving”

*This posting originally appeared in an email to the Botany Bay volunteers on 25 November 2013.*

As we enter the Thanksgiving week and reflect on the bounty of the universe, my thoughts run to the one individual whose beneficence in life is the principal element in retaining the Botany Bay property that we all love.  Over the past few months, I have shared remembrances of the more recent principals in this legacy, the late John E. Meyer and his wife, Margaret Morgan Whitman Meyer Pepper. Today I begin a reflection on the man whose great wealth saved this unique property from development and kept it intact.

As I listened to Garrison Keillor’s “Writer’s Almanac” this morning, he reminded me that today is the birthday of our benefactor, who while he was the richest man in American business at the time, chose to share his wealth in many ways. The article below is from today’s program and starts the next chapter in my tidbits about Botany history.   

“It’s the birthday of American steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, born in Dunfermline, Scotland (1835), the son of a weaver and political radical. His father instilled in young Andrew the values of political and economic equality, but his family’s poverty taught Carnegie a different lesson. At the age of 12, the boy worked as a milk-hand for $1.20 per week. When the Carnegie’s immigrated to America in 1848, Carnegie was determined to find prosperity. One of the pioneers of industry of 19th-century America, Andrew Carnegie helped build the American steel industry, which turned him into one of the richest entrepreneurs of his age.

In 1868, at age 33, Carnegie wrote himself a memo in which he questioned his chosen career, a life of business. He kept the letter for his entire life, carefully preserving it in his files. In the memo, he vowed to retire from business within two years, believing that the further pursuit of wealth would degrade him. Carnegie eventually sold his steel business and gave his fortune away to cultural, educational, and scientific institutions for the improvement of mankind.

Over the course of his life, Andrew Carnegie endowed 2,811 libraries and many charitable foundations as well as the internationally famous Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He also bought 7,689 organs for churches. The purpose of the latter gift was, in Carnegie’s words, “To lessen the pain of the sermons.” “

Tom’s Tidbit #12 – “summer of 1948”

It has been said that, “A Lycoming radial engine ran as smooth as sipping whiskey, and sounded . . . . .well, there is no sound on earth like a round engine, up close and far away. Especially far away, when you are on the ground and the sound comes from the sky, a deep low hum. No matter where I am or what I’m doing, when I hear that radial engine sound, I freeze and search the sky. If I’m lucky, I spot the airplane moving sedately against a blue or cloudy sky, singing of flight. Even when she disappears, I close my eyes and listen to the throb of that engine. Sometimes I can feel it even after it has completely faded from view.”. So it was on that late August morning in 1948 that I began my romance with the land that is now called Botany Bay Plantation. As my cousins and I splashed in the surf of Edisto Beach, near the newly built palmetto log groin, a low rumble came along the coast from the north. A bright shining Stearman bi-plane came just overhead and the pilot’s wave from the open cockpit made us feel a huge connection with the mysterious world of flight. Who was this genial pilot and where did he come from? The answer to these questions came from the fount of Edisto knowledge, Marion H. Whaley Sr., who along with his wife Becky, operated a tin shed “store” inappropriately named “South Point Services” at the site of what is now Bay Creek Park. Marion informed us that the pilot was Dr. Greenway’s son, John Cowan Greenway Jr., who kept his plane at a private air strip on Indian Point on what was then know as Greenway Plantation.

After a bit of prodding, my father agreed to drive us out to the plantation to see the plane close up. The basic trip was a familiar one since Wilkinson’s Landing and Frampton Inlet were my Dad’s favorite fishing spot in those early years. An unfamiliar left turn at the end of the county road took us through a white board fence and gate and down the lane toward Indian Point. The woods on either side, through what was originally Sharegold Plantation, were much as they remain today, but leaving them, the land was completely open with the exception of the acreage immediately surrounding Dr. Greenway’s house, which had been built in 1940. The airstrip ran along the left of Indian Point and a small hanger was just beyond a farm gate.

James Greenway Jr. was a quiet, but pleasant, gentleman who allows us to take turns sitting in the cockpit and taking photos. My Mother asked if it would be possible for us to visit Botany Bay Beach and he readily agreed. The only stipulation was that we should record our visit in the guest register that Dr. Greenway maintained on the beach. The drive over to the beach was far different then as there were two arched white bridges that crossed the creeks. The first located at the site of the current bridge and a second that was about fifty yards south of Pockoy Island(both bridges were destroyed by Hurricane Gracie in 1959). In 1948 the road to the beach continued almost a half mile past Pockoy and the “bone-yard” of trees on the beach was a residual of what had been Botany Bay Island. The great hurricane of 1893 had taken much of the island and the hurricane of 1940 had taken the old Townsend cottages and the last of the big woods. At the end of the beach road was an oyster shell parking lot that would hold a dozen or more vehicles and a large wooded box that contained the guest register with columns for names, addresses, and comments on what fish you had caught and shells you had found.

Later, in 1952, Dr. Greenway would sell the north end of Botany Bay Island, which had been spared the hurricane’s erosion, to a group of Columbia businessmen headed by John K. Cauthen, one of the most powerful leaders in South Carolina during the 20^th century and leading force in the establishment of the SC ETV network. A matching, but much smaller treed hummock remained on the south end of the island until a nor’easter gale in December 1973 washed it away, cut a new inlet for Townsend Creek and separated it from Frampton Inlet.

Tom’s Tidbits #11 – “the beach pounders”

In the fall of 2012, Bess and I discussed a series of lectures for the Botany Bay volunteers that would center on my long time love of the land and her creatures. After discussing the logistics and format of the talks, Bess candidly inquired, “What will you title these talks?” Uncharacteristically, I was at a loss for words, but managed to stammer, “Reflections on Botany Bay”. As I drove away from the caretaker’s house, which had been my family’s home for eight years, my thoughts ran back to my first memory/knowledge of the plantation, nearly seventy years earlier. My first recollection of “Greenway’s Plantation” came in the summer of 1944 when I met my first “beach pounder”, or uniformed beach patrol on Edisto Beach. In September 1942, horses had been authorized for use by the beach patrol to enforce blackouts that would thwart German U-boat attacks on shipping and clandestine spying activity. The mounted portion was the largest segment of the patrol and a large stable was constructed near the Greenway’s barn to house the horses, and riding gear, that had been provided by the Army Remount Service. The Coast Guard provided the uniforms for the riders, who were a mixed bag of people: polo players, cowboys, former sheriffs, horse trainers, Army Reserve cavalrymen, jockeys, farm boys, rodeo riders and stunt men. The riders rode in around the clock patrol shifts from Botany Bay Island to Bay Point, swimming the horses across Frampton and Jeremy Inlets. During summer daylight hours they entertained the young ladies, often giving them rides, and were the envy of all aspiring “cowboys”. My aunt, then a recent Columbia College graduate, got a lot of attention and I had my photo taken, as a toddler, on horseback with a smiling Coast Guardsman. In addition to the beach patrol, we watched the dirigible patrol that also kept surveillance for U-boats that surfaced to recharge batteries during daylight hours. These Navy blimps motored along the beaches in continuing patrols between their bases in Glynco, GA and Elizabeth City, NC. As darkness fell, the beach patrol insured blackout curtains were in place. These curtains allowed no escaping light  that would aid German U-boats in targeting  tankers, as they hugged the coast delivering petroleum for the war effort. Blackout during WWII was far simpler than it would be today, since we only had kerosene lanterns and candles for lighting until electricity came to the island after the war.

 The old stables had eight stalls and a large tack room for riding gear. While still standing into the mid 1970s (my daughter kept her horses there), we bulldozed the buildings in a general clean up, after the yellow Butler building was constructed, in 1975.

Tom’s Tidbit #10 – “Peggy takes the reins”

When Peggy returned from her summer residence, Stillwater Farm, in the fall of 1977, the staff that had supported both plantations had been greatly reduced. Calvert Huffines and the White Hall “queens”, farm workers, dog trainer, and her personal assistant, Molly Wing (an English lady who had previously been a nanny for Princess Grace of Monaco) were gone.

Only Miss Emily Smith, who had cooked at White Hall, and I, the part time caretaker,remained to assist Peggy in the transition to her new winter residence. To support her interest in quail hunting, Peggy turned to “Coot” Wooten, a Berkeley County game manager, for expertise and planning. Islander Junior “Boot” Megget was hired as an equipment operator and general handy man to open the woods and plant cover crops to attract wildlife. Junior, who was devoted to Peggy, stayed on at Botany for thirty years until Peggy’s death, but was overlooked in her last will and testament.

 

The open cropland was leased to Edisto planter Raymond Tumbleston, who planted row crops (corn & soy beans) and a variety of truck crops (tomatoes, broccoli, greens & cucumbers) on over 400 acres. In addition to his personal farming efforts, Raymond and his foreman, Jeff Baldwin, assisted in dove hunts and the expansion of quail hunting quality. This team worked together for over three years while Peggy sought a qualified full time farm manager to take responsibility for agricultural, timber and wildlife management.

 

In the fall of 1980, Roy Mundel, a recent Clemson graduate and native of New Jersey, became the plantation manager and remained on Botany until 1982. That summer, Peggy married George Wharton Pepper III of Philadelphia and Southwest Harbor, ME in a private ceremony at Stillwater Farm. Mr. Perkins, a retired Canadian botanist, and his wife, also came aboard that summer to assume the wildlife management responsibility and assist with general caretaking duties. As these responsibilities became too arduous for a retired educator, Peggy again started a search for a qualified plantation manager and ultimately hired Bruce Rawl in 1985. Unlike his predecessors (Mundel & Perkins), Bruce understood how to work with a strong willed lady and quickly adapted to the task. Over the next 22 years, Bruce developed a close bond with and affection for Mrs. Pepper, effectively managed the wildlife and timber and established a personal farming operations on the property.

 

George and Peggy Pepper split their time between summers in Southwest Harbor, Maine, an exclusive colony on Mount Desert Island, winters on Botany and interspersed periods at George’s ancestral colonial home on the “Main Line” outside Philadelphia. When George died in 1994, Peggy inherited the Southwest Harbor home and continued to spend summers there, as long as she was physically able to do so. Peggy passed to spirit on 29 December 2007.

Tom’s Tidbit #9 – “Probate and Beyond” . . . . . . .

Execution of Jason Meyer’s last will & testament began in early 1977 under the direction of his long time CPA and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama, E. Houston Brown. While Botany Bay would go to the State of South Carolina, with Peggy retaining life estate, other real property holdings were scattered across four other states, plus a half interest in “Tiger Tops”, a photographic safari destination in the Himalayan land of Nepal.

These real property assets were left to his widow, but the bulk of the liquid assets were left to his three daughters (Jane Cutrer Meyer, Nancy Cook Meyer & Stella Gregg Meyer).

Houston Brown’s challenge, in addition to the normal rules of probate, was to carry out his commitment to assist and protect Peggy in the liquidation of non essential holdings. This process would take the better part of three years. With the help of Augustine “Aussie” Smythe (a family friend & notable Charleston attorney) and the then Governor, James B. Edwards, a contract with the state was developed that would give Peggy’s heirs a twenty-five year control of the residence and surrounding twelve acres, if Peggy died prematurely. In exchange, Peggy agreed to make a $50,000 investment in improvements to the residence and to maintain the entire property.

Longtime plantation carpenter, Herman Thompson of Walterboro , made the following changes:

• Total modernization of the kitchen

• A two story wing added with a den and master suite

• Butler’s cottage attached to main house for cook’s apartment/laundry

• Plantation era corn crib was moved and converted to a stable & kennel

• A two car garage was added

These improvements were well in excess of the $50,000 agreement, but when completed allowed Peggy to utilized the residence as her winter home and to sell White Hall Plantation to industrialist, J. Peter Grace.

It should be noted that a life estate interest in property gives the holder complete control of the land including agricultural and timber management, but carry’s with it the full obligation to pay Charleston County property taxes.

Tom’s Tidbit #8 – “The Transition Begins”

New Years Day 1977 was forecast to be cold, but clear on Botany Bay. A telephone call to my house in the wee hours would shatter affairs on the plantation and set a course for the transformation of the property forever. Gracie Whitman, Peggy’s daughter, was calling to say that Jason Meyer had suffered a massive heart attack and was in the Beaufort County Hospital. He instructed Gracie to insure that the dove shoot and barbeque that was scheduled to honor young Austin Smythe (son of Jason’s Charleston attorney & currently, Director of Republican Staff, U.S. House Budget Committee) and his fiancé must go forward and that everyone would be told that although he was ill, they should enjoy the day in his absence.

Just after dawn, the phone rang again, this time Gracie informed me that Jason had died. His last wishes were that the gathering would go forward and that no one would be informed of his passing until the social hour following the shoot. With heavy hearts, Gracie, Calvert Huffines (then manager at White Hall), the household staff (“Queens”) from White Hall and I carried out Jason’s last wishes to ensure that the young couple were the center of the celebration honoring their forthcoming marriage. The execution of the plan, while sad, was flawlessly carried out in the grand style that Jason and Peggy would have appreciated.

In the months that followed, White Hall would be sold, farming operations at both plantations would be wrapped up and the rustic owners retreat house, that had been built as a getaway spot by Dr. James C. Greenway, would be transformed into a permanent winter home for Jason’s widow, Margaret “Peggy” Meyer.

Tom’s Tidbit #7 – “The Inadvertent Gift”

One of the most common questions that visitors ask is, “How did the state acquire Botany Bay?”.

Jason version went like this:

Observing that the upper reached of Ocella Creek could be isolated from the tides by building a third dike between Botany Bay and Sea Cloud, he decided to construct this barrier and create a large duck pond. Knowing that the state claims ownership of all marshland, (absent a clear grant from the King of England) and that weekly over flights were done to protect this assertion, Jason determined that these flights over Botany took place on Tuesdays. He assembled a “task force” of heavy equipment and began digging a barrow pit in the woods to stock pile soil for the dike. When enough soil was available (on a Wednesday morn), construction commenced and the dike that impounds Lake Jason was created. When follow-on state flights observed the “transgression” a series of letters between the Attorney General, Daniel R. McLeod, Jason and his lawyers ensued.

Seeking to mediate the situation, Jason invited the attorney general to Botany for lunch, a tour and discussions.  Greeting the attorney general and his entourage, Jason welcomed them with the offer of a drink before lunch. Attorney General McLeod (son of a Methodist minister) responded “alcohol has never crossed my lips”. Jason would later recall, “I knew that I was in deep s..t, right then”. In the end, Jason struck a Faustian bargain with McLeod that in return for retaining the dike, he would leave the entirety of Botany Bay to the state as a wildlife preserve, but retain life estate for Peggy.

A codicil was added to his will that would cement the deal. Never trusting that South Carolina politicians would/could withstand the pressure that would prevent Botany becoming an extension of the Edisto Beach State Park, Jason planned to quietly drop the codicil and leave the plantation to The Nature Conservancy. Just before Christmas in 1976, Jason called to say that Patrick Newnan, the president of The Nature Conservancy would visit Botany on 27 December and ask that I give him a full tour of the land including a boat trip to the Fig Islands. This visit was very successful, but the plan did not materialize when Jason died four days later.

Tom’s Tidbit #6 – Why buy Botany Bay? . . . . . . .

The question when and why did John Meyer buy Botany, when he already owned White Hall, arises often. Jason told the story like this; “one morning in the fall of 1968, I was having a leisurely breakfast on the White Hall veranda. As I read the morning Wall Street Journal, I saw a classified ad listing a Charleston County plantation for sale. What really caught my eye was the three miles of ocean front and extensive wetland”.

A few phone calls and a bit of negotiation ensued and Jason purchased Botany Bay from Newton Brothers Lumber of Adams Run, SC. The Newtons had purchased Botany from Dr. James Greenway in 1957, harvested the timber, constructed the grain silos and leased about 400 acres of cropland to Yonges Island planter, John Towles. In addition to corn, Towles planted a variety of truck crops including beans, tomatoes and cole crops (greens, broccoli, collards etal).

Acquisition of Botany gave Jason the opportunity to indulge several hobbies. After freeing himself from the day to day of hotel management, he had developed a passion for hunting (particularly dove & duck), a keen interest in farming, a love of hunting dogs (particularly “Candy” a black Labrador dam from Queen Elizabeth II’s kennel) and the intrigue of owning a private beach. His love of duck hunting would be his undoing and result in the state’s ownership of Botany Bay.

Jason and Peggy split their time between White Hall in the winter and Stillwater Farm, near Salisbury CT, in the summer. On all three properties corn was the principal row crop and during the warmer months, April through October, he visited White Hall and Botany alone for one week a month to supervise the plantings and indulge his “wild side”.

While there are many stories of those summer weekends, one of my favorites was Jason’s love of beach strolls. He would prepare a large thermos of his favorite summer libation, “The Colonel” (a concoction of Mount Gay rum, pink grapefruit juice and sprinkle of nutmeg) don his large Panama planter’s hat and wander aimlessly from one end of Botany Beach to the other. To the chagrin of boat borne interlopers, he would do this “au naturel”. The fishermen and shell seekers, who had arrived by boat, would either flee or be engaged by Jason with inquires as to fishing success or shell identification. Always gregarious and outgoing, he delighted in measuring the reaction of the unauthorized, but not unwelcome, guests.

Tom’s Tidbits #5 – “White Hall Plantation”

By 1965 Jason Meyer had achieved a stability in what had been a chaotic 20 years since his return from World War II. The eleven old “railroad hotels” that he had inherited on his father’s death had been sold, as had the architecturally significant, but unprofitable Robert Meyer, Jacksonville that he built in 1959. The only remaining hotel was in Orlando and (built in 1963) was profiting from the Disneyland boom in central Florida.

His first marriage to Stella Cook Cutrer of San Antonio, TX, which had ended in divorce, was behind him and on 20 December 1965, he married Margaret “Peggy” Edwards Morgan Whitman of Avon, CT . Peggy the daughter of Baltimoreans S.C. Morgan and Arington Butt Morgan and was graduated from the prestigious Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, CT.
In addition to her societal “pedigree” as a scion of the first families of Maryland and Georgia, Peggy was a cousin to Jason’s stepbrother and stepsister Edward and Kitty Barret. Like Jason, her first marriage, to Horace White Whitman, had ended in divorce.

Jason celebrated his marriage to Peggy by purchasing White Hall Plantation near Green Pond in Colleton County (legend tells us that White Hall was named for the London residence of Henry VIII and later Charles II). This 1,100 parcel originally developed by Thomas Heyward Jr. (a signor of the Declaration of Independence and founding president of the South Carolina Agricultural Society) as a rice plantation, is on Cuckold Creek in the headwaters of the Combahee River. Jason always referred to the purchase as his wedding present to Peggy.

*On a personal note – On her graduation from Newberry College in 1911, my maternal grandmother, Josephine Strother, accepted as her first employment the “headmistress” position in the one room White Hall school.