|
|
 |
 |
The recorded history of Mount Vintage goes back nearly a quarter of a millennium when the first settlers began to trickle into the area. Prior to that time, the region was a vast primeval forest of oak, hickory and poplar interspersed with towering pines, all of which covered the steep hillsides and the narrow bottoms where clear bubbling streams flowed persistently towards the mighty Savannah River. The land was inhabited by all manner of wildlife, including deer, wild turkey, beaver, fox, bear, a variety of waterfowl, and even buffalo and elk. And, as is evidenced by ancient artifacts that are to be found on almost every acre of the Plantation, Native Americans had lived on this land for thousands of years.
The oldest name in Mount Vintage is that of Chevis Creek (sometimes spelled Chavis, or Chavous), a beautiful stream which meanders through the eastern side of the Plantation. This creek derives its name from one of the first settlers in Edgefield County, John Chevis, a free Negro Carpenter from Virginia. Chevis settled in 1749 on this creek many miles west of Mount Vintage with his wife, nine children and "a Child he found a few months ago in the Path."
The first settler in the immediate area of Mount Vintage was a sturdy German by the name of Michael Burkhalter who, in 1755, acquired 300 acres of land on a creek which runs through the heart of the Plantation. Like Chevis, Burkhalter saw his name attached to the creek upon which he had settled. Some years later Burkhalter's son John built a gristmill on the creek just below where the Mount Vintage Fox Hound kennels now stand.
The early settlers of Mount Vintage doubtless had many anxious moments during the Cherokee War of 1760 when numerous residents of the South Carolina frontier were massacred. Later in the 1760's these same settlers had to deal with the frightening problem of outlaws, horse thieves and bandits who swept into the area in the aftermath of the Cherokee War. Since there were no law enforcement officials, courts or jails outside of Charles Town at that time, the law-abiding settlers who wanted to restore order had no alternative but to band together in a vigilante group known as "the Regulators" and bring "frontier justice" to the region.
One such settler in the neighborhood who became an active member of the Regulators was Laurence Rambo. Rambo actually lived on Horn's Creek several miles north of Mount Vintage, but in 1772 he was granted two hundred acres in the heart of what became Mount Vintage Plantation. Rambo himself was involved in several infamous and colorful incidents in which alleged outlaws received summary frontier justice.
The years of the American Revolution was a period of turmoil in the Mount Vintage region. Some settlers, like Laurence Rambo, remained loyal to the mother country. Others fought persistently for independence. Still others fought first for one side and then for the other. The Revolution in the South Carolina backcountry was a bitter civil war that reached its most bloody stage in 1781. By that time, the vast majority of the citizens here had embraced the cause of independence. Most Americans of the twenty-first century fail to appreciate the fact that without the contributions of these patriots of the South Carolina backcountry, America might not have won its independence.
The most prominent patriot in the Mount Vintage area during the American Revolution was Captain John Ryan. From the very outset of hostilities, he was committed to the cause of independence, and, unlike so many others, he never deserted the cause even when it appeared certain that the British had won. Wonderful stories have been handed down to us about the Revolutionary exploits of John Ryan, George Miller, Jr. and his sister Annsybil, and other heroes of the Revolution who lived or owned property at Mount Vintage, including Captain Richard Johnson and Captain Leonard Marbury. The historic sites at Mount Vintage of "Shelving Rock," "Sarah Jane Spring" and "Murder Oak" all give testimony to its rich Revolutionary heritage.
Soon after the end of the Revolution, a colorful adventurer-turned-lawyer, Peter Carnes, arrived at Mount Vintage. Carnes is chiefly remembered as having been America's first hot-air balloonist. Only six months after the first hot air balloon flight in history which occurred in France, he made his first flight. Although he succeeded in getting off the ground, the flight was less than totally successful. The balloon crashed, but he emerged unhurt. Carnes' repeated attempts to soar with the clouds in his hot air balloon may not have impressed many people at the time, but he would be delighted to know that here in the 21st century, his amazing balloon flights are still remembered at Mount Vintage.
Beginning in 1796, Richard Gantt, a popular but eccentric lawyer who became an early South Carolina judge, acquired large land holdings in the region. He was the first to apply the name "Mount Vintage" to the plantation and to establish the reputation of Mount Vintage as an important and beautiful plantation of the Old Edgefield District.
In 1818 Gantt sold Mount Vintage to an enterprising German immigrant by the name of Christian Breithaupt who completed the job of transforming Mount Vintage into one of the grandest plantations of the Old Edgefield District. In addition to the vast cotton plantings on the 2,400 acres which then comprised Mount Vintage, Breithaupt maintained extensive orchards and vineyards. Active in public affairs, he dispensed lavish hospitality and cultivated a wide assortment of prominent friends. His most enduring achievement was the founding of the first textile mill in this part of South Carolina at Vaucluse in 1828. Breithaupt died in 1835 and is buried on the plantation.
To the south and east of Christian Breithaupt's Mount Vintage was another plantation, "Chester," the name of which dates back at least as early as 1789. Owned in the first part of the 19th century by John Fox, a wealthy merchant of Augusta, Chester was purchased in 1838 by Benjamin Ryan Tillman, Sr., the patriarch of a family which was to have an enormous impact on South Carolina. The ruins of the old Chester house can still be found on the east side of Mount Vintage Plantation. Several hundred yards south of the house is "Highview Cemetery" so named because of its elevation and the panoramic vista it affords of the surrounding countryside.
Benjamin and his wife Sophia Tillman had eleven children. All members of the Tillman family were exceptionally bright and very well read. Although highly independent and unpretentious people, the Tillmans were as free and lawless as they were strong-minded and proud. They have been described as being representative of the South's - and of Edgefield's - violent character. Most of the Tillman sons died before reaching old age - many of them due to violence. Four of these sons were buried at Highview Cemetery, and their graves can be seen there today.
The two sons who were not to die young, George Dionysius Tillman and Benjamin Ryan Tillman, Jr., became very prominent and influential men in South Carolina. George, a State Senator and later Congressman, consistently fought for the interests of the common citizen. His younger brother Ben spent the early part of his life farming and seemed uninterested in political office. However, as the economic plight of the small farmers of South Carolina became increasingly acute during the latter half of the 1880's, Ben Tillman became an effective spokesman for them. In 1890, having never held a political office before, he was elected Governor of South Carolina. Four years later, in 1894, he was elected to the United States Senate where he served until his death in 1918. Because of his constant and effective representation of small farmers, Ben Tillman was given the nickname "Pitchfork Ben." Arguably, he was the most powerful political figure in the history of South Carolina.
As early as the 1870's the Edgefield Hussars, a local militia unit, began holding annual picnics at a site in Mount Vintage with several large bubbling springs under beautiful and large Oaks and Poplars called "Lanham Springs." For nearly half a century, innumerable military drills, political stump meetings, dances, picnics and other social events, drawing huge crowds from all over western South Carolina and Georgia were held at Lanham Springs.
Toward the end of the 19th century, the once rich soils of the region became exhausted from more than a century of intensive cultivation of cotton, and many of the steep hillsides had become badly eroded. Additionally, the dramatic topography of the Mount Vintage area was increasingly unsuitable for the mechanization that was evolving in agriculture. As a result of these factors, many of the farmers in and near Mount Vintage abandoned the area for more productive agricultural lands elsewhere. The vast majority of the land at Mount Vintage was allowed to grow up in trees and to return to the natural forests that had existed prior to the arrival of the first settlers.
Beginning in 1992, the Mount Vintage Plantation that we know today began to be assembled. Fifteen tracts totaling more than 5,000 acres were ultimately put together. This land encompasses most of the historic plantations of Mount Vintage, Independent Hill and Chester. In 1994 the initial development of the Plantation was begun. This phase of the development had an equestrian and foxhunting theme, with riding stables and kennels. In the fall of 1998 construction began on the Mount Vintage Plantation Golf Course and the first eighteen holes opened on Saint Patrick's Day, 2000. In 2006 ground was broken for an additional nine hole course, bringing the course to a total of 27 holes. The new nine was opened on March 15, 2008.
Today, Mount Vintage Plantation Golf Course is widely recognized as one of the finest golf courses in the nation. Discerning retirees who have come to live at Mount Vintage appreciate that this Plantation provides a quiet, yet fun-filled and elegant lifestyle. Now in its third century, Mount Vintage has indeed reclaimed its position of prominence in the region.
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
