The Carolina backcountry of the 1700s, and that includes today's COWASEE Basin, was the frontier equivalent of Oregon and California in the 1800s. With promises of free land and a new start in life, settlers from Virginia, Pennsylvania, and other northern colonies poured down the Great Wagon Road. Included among these early settlers were family names such as Hampton, Taylor, Sumter, Adams, Hopkins, Richardson, Singleton, and others that went on to great distinction in the South Carolina Midlands. One distinguished family that settled on the west bank of the Congaree River near the present day Fort Motte was that of William Thomson (1727- 1796).

Like many of his peers, Thomson grew up with a rifle in his hand and became a militia member. Prior to the Revolution he had become a successful planter, acquiring wealth with extensive plantings of the cash crop of its day, indigo, on the north bank of the Congaree River. He developed a plantation called Belleville on a ridge on the south bank of the Congaree between Fort Motte and the present day US Highway 601.

William Russell Thomson (1761-1807), son of William Thomson, built the original Midway Plantation, ca. 1785, although little of this structure remains. Midway was located between Belleville, his family home, and Bellbroughton, owned by Mrs. Thomson's father. The present Midway is a two- story antebellum frame building with both Greek Revival and Federal influences. The home was listed in the National Register May 28, 1976. Thomson also became politically active in what was then called Amelia Township, later St. Matthews Parish. He became sheriff in 1772 and in 1775 was elected to the First Provincial Congress of South Carolina where he served with a "whose who" of later- to- be Revolutionary War heroes including Henry Laurens, William Moultrie, Francis Marion, Thomas Sumter, Richard Richardson, Thomas Taylor, and Andrew Williamson.

Thomson saw action early in the Revolution when as a colonel of mounted Rangers, he served under General Richard Richardson to put down an uprising of Loyalists in the Up Country led by Patrick Cunningham. Thomson, who had been dubbed "Danger," surrounded Cunningham in a dense cane brake on the Reedy River near Simpsonville. Cunningham escaped but Thomson's mission had been a success.

This 1773 Cook's map shows the location of Belleville Plantation in relation to Ft. Motte, Ft. Granby, and Orangeburg. It also shows Gen. Greene's camp and British Gen. Rawdon's camp in the campaign of 1781. Thomson's finest hour came about six months later at the Battle of Fort Moultrie in June 1776. The British were attempting an amphibious assault across Breach Inlet. Their idea was to attack the Fort, located on the south end of Sullivan's Island, by land. Thomson and his Third Regiment, positioned on the north end of Sullivan's Island, poured a deadly fire of cannon and rifle fire into the British, who were forced to withdraw with heavy casualties.

Col. Thomson continued service for the American cause but fell ill in 1778. He returned to military service but was captured with the fall of Charleston in 1780. His plantation, Belleville, was plundered and turned into a garrison by the British. The Brits later abandoned Belleville and moved up the Congaree about a mile to Mrs. Rebecca Motte's plantation.

After the War, Thomson remained active in local and state political affairs. He was elected to the South Carolina General Assembly and was later a delegate to ratify the US Constitution. He rebuilt his wealth, becoming one of the first planters in the Orangeburg District to cultivate cotton, the cash crop that replaced indigo. He died in Virginia in 1796 at the age of 69.

During the contentious South Carolina capital location debate of 1786, Belleville was mentioned as a possible capital site. In fact, an amendment to make Belleville the state capital passed the House, but the Senate did not concur and a conference committee settled on Columbia.

Belleville, because of its strategic location near a major ferry and trading road, hosted numerous travelers over the years after Col. Thomson's death. But like Gillon's Retreat, Thomas Sumter's Home and so many other plantations of the COWASEE Basin, Belleville has disappeared and been reclaimed by nature. Col. Thomson's contributions to South Carolina and the nation have not, however, and he remains one of the great men of the Palmetto State.

(Next week: Ferries of the COWASEE Basin)