Strawberry Plantation – Cordesville – Berkeley County

— Strawberry Plantation © Brandon Coffey, 2014 —
(Do Not Use Without Written Consent)

Basic Information

• Location – Cordesville, Western branch of the Cooper River, Berkeley County

• Origin of name – ?

• Other names – ?

• Current status – Became part of Rice Hope Plantation in 1927
  

Timeline

• 1677 – Earliest known date of existence

  Land grant to Thomas Stanyarne and later willed to his son, James Stanyarne
  

• 1705 – James Child owned the plantation and a ferry was established on the plantation's banks of the Cooper River. This ferry operated for many years and was called Strawberry Ferry (8, p. 41).
  

• ? – James Child gave his son, Isaac, Strawberry Plantation (1).
  

• Circa 1800 – House built (6, p. 47).
  

• Early 1800s – The Strawberry Jockey Club was established at the plantation when a field was cleared to create a racetrack for thoroughbred horses. The club was dissolved in 1822 (3, p. 81).
  

• Circa 1842 – John C. Ball owned the plantation (3, p. 35).
  

• 1865 – Dr. J. B. Maring owned Strawberry Plantation (7, p. 8).
  

• 1927 – US Senator Joseph S. Frelinghuysen purchased Strawberry Plantation and merged it with his larger Rice Hope Plantation (3, p. 81).
  

— Strawberry Plantation Slave Cabin © Brandon Coffey, 2014 —
(Do Not Use Without Written Consent)

Land

• Number of acres – 950

• 100 acres added in 1681

• Primary crop – Rice

Slaves

• Number of slaves – 90 in 1865 (7, p. 8)
  

Buildings

• A 2004 survey found a house (circa 1800), slave cabin (mid-1800s), smokehouse (early 1900s), and three sheds structures (early 1900s) still standing (6, p. 47).
  

— Strawberry Plantation House • National Register of Historic Places, 2002 —

References & Resources

1. Information contributed by Dee Green

2. National Register of Historic Places - Cooper River Historic District
   – Nomination form - PDF - submitted in 2002
   – Additional nomination form - PDF
   – Photographs, architectural overview
   

3. John Beaufain Irving, A Day on Cooper River (1842) (Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2010)
   
   

4. J. Russell Cross, Historic Ramblin's through Berkeley (Columbia, SC: R.L. Bryan Company, 1985)
    Order Historic Ramblin's through Berkeley

5. Albert Sidney Thomas, Thomas Family, South Carolina (Self published 1964)
   

6. Natalie P. Adams, Cultural Resources Management Plan for the Cooper River Drainage - PDF
   

7. Charleston, South Carolina: Slaves, Owners of Plantations, Charleston, SC, March 1865, M416, Roll 15601, - PDF
   

8. Harriett Kershaw Leiding, Historic Houses of South Carolina (Philadelphia, PA: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1921)