Wateree Indian arrowheads found at Goodwill Plantation Note: Goodwill Plantation dates back to 1753. At the junction of Garners Ferry Road and the Wateree River, Goodwill has hosted Wateree Indians, British land grants, German settlers, river transportation, the Revolutionary War, the Huger family, the Heyward family, slavery and freedom, the Civil War, the McMaster family, P.T. Barnum, and now historical restoration. Witness to this flow of history has been Grover Rye who was raised on the land and has become its caretaker. This is his story.

Part 1: Wateree Indian Villages at Goodwill

For thousands of years before European settlers arrived in South Carolina, our state was occupied by Indians. In the beginning the Indians were hunters and gatherers. Later they settled into villages and began to grow corn, beans, and squash. Their days were spent in the cornfield, the household, hunting in the woods, and fishing in the rivers and streams.

Stone egg used by Wateree Indians to rob bird nests There were two Wateree Indian villages with about 30 to 40 Indians in each village at what would later become Goodwill Plantation. Their homes were round, bark–covered dwellings with a fire pit in the center and a hole in the top for the smoke to get out. Most villages would be surrounded by a wooden palisade for protection.

In 1566, Spanish explorer Juan Pardo came through the area looking for gold. In 1670, the English discovered a new source of wealth among the Indians, the gun and deer skin trade. The two villages at Goodwill were on the Virginia trade route. For their goods the Indians received axes, woolens, kettles, pots, hoes, guns, ammunition, brass wire, and decorative sundries of beads. After the arrival of Europeans many tribe members died from diseases such as smallpox.

John Evans and his family moved from Granby to the abandoned Indian village site on Goodwill Plantation. This sketch depicts how the Evans Homestead might have looked in 1718. In 1711–1712, the Wateree Indians fought with the colonists against the Tuscarora Indians of North Carolina. They fought against the colonists in the Yemassee War in 1715 which greatly reduced their population.

As their numbers began to dwindle the Wateree were recruited by the Catawba Indians to join with other related Siouan tribes from the area. The villages at Goodwill were abandoned.

(In 1956, these villages were found by Grover Rye who used the 1825 Robert Mills’ Maps which showed that early roads went straight to them.

Rye has many arrowheads and pieces of pottery found at each site. An unusual item he found was a rock set egg. The Indians would use this to rob eggs from bird nests. If the nest was empty, the bird would stop laying eggs.)

This sketch depicts how the Wateree Indian village on Goodwill Plantation might have looked. After the Yemassee Indian War, trading changed in South Carolina. Instead of traders going into the villages, trading was then carried on from government trading posts.

John Evans, First White Settler

The trading post at The Congarees, later called Granby, was across the Congaree River from what would become Columbia in 1786. From this trading post at Granby in 1718 came Goodwill’s first white settler, John Evans, who had been sent to help build the fort and trading post at Granby.

John Evans settled at one of the abandoned Wateree Indian villages on Goodwill. Much of the area had been cleared by the Indians. It was good farmland and had easy access to the river.

In 1751, John Evans joined Captain John Fairchild’s rangers who operated against the Indians. On September 24, 1753, John Evans received a land grant for 400 acres at Goodwill.