Old Oliver Place Plantation – Socastee – Horry County

Basic Information

• Location – East side of Waccamaw River, Socastee, Horry County

• Origin of name – Named for the Oliver family that owned the plantation
  

• Other names – ?

• Current status – Burroughs and Chapin Company, Inc. purchased most of the land
  

Timeline

• Late 18th century – Earliest known date of existence

• ? – House built

• Late 18th century – William Oliver began growing corn and indigo.
  

• 1823 – William Oliver died and his son, Daniel W. Oliver, took over the plantation.
  

• Early 1830s – Daniel W. Oliver began buying up huge plats of land along the Waccamaw River. The majority of the land was purchased for the long leaf pines that grew naturally in the area. The trees were cut and boxed to obtain the sap which was distilled into turpentine. Turpentine was an important part of the naval stores industry in 19th century Horry County.
  

• 1880 – The Olivers continued working the plantation after the war, but it was on the down-slide. The long leaf pines were tapped out and high taxation forced the liquidation of much of the land holdings. By 1880, the Olivers were down to 1,000 acres and that land too, was all but gone by the turn of the century. Burroughs and Chapin bought much of the acreage for pennies on the dollar.
  

Land

• Number of acres – 7,000+ acres in 1860 stretching along the east side of the Waccamaw River from just south of Conway down to present day Enterprise Landing
  

• Primary crops – Corn, sweet potatoes, honey, indigo, turpentine, cattle, hog
  

Owners

• Alphabetical list – Burroughs and Chapin (1900s-?), Daniel W. Oliver (1823-1894), William Oliver (?-1823)
  

Slaves

• Number of slaves – 2 in 1823; 18 in 1860
  

Buildings

• House valued at $600 in the agricultural survey of 1860.
  

References & Resources

1. Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938
   –  Recollections of Uncle William Oliver - slave born at Old Olive Place
   

2. 30-15 Plantation File, held by the South Carolina Historical Society
   

3. Charles Joyner, Down by the Riverside: A South Carolina Slave Community, Anniversary Edition (Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2009)