Columbia Star

1963        Celebrating 60 Years      2023

Goodwill Plantation, A Living History

Part 3: Simmons Ferry becomes Garners Ferry



Many dams and dikes were built at Goodwill Plantation using drag pans, horses, and wheel barrows prior to the Revolution. They were enlarged by slave labor during the Civil War.

Many dams and dikes were built at Goodwill Plantation using drag pans, horses, and wheel barrows prior to the Revolution. They were enlarged by slave labor during the Civil War.

The American militia continued down the Wateree River and took control of Simmons Ferry, which is also on what later become Goodwill Plantation. They wanted to have control of the ferry in case the American forces lost the Battle of Camden, which they did. But the retreating American Army went north in the direction from which they had come.

Simmons Ferry was the most important ferry on the Wateree river because it linked Sumter District with the new capital of Columbia, 45 miles away. The road to this ferry had developed from a branch of the old Catawba Indian path that led from The Congarees (Granby) to the High Hills (now Stateburg). The 25–mile marker is still on the north side of the old dirt road which parallels Garners Ferry Road (378).

The crossing over the Wateree in 1763 was known as Simmons Ferry, but in 1783 received a new name when it was bestowed on Adam Fowler Brisbane by the state government. The Simmons /Brisbane house site and spring head can still be seen on Goodwill Plantation.

The first ferry across the Wateree River was operated by Simmons then Brisbane, and later Garner. This sketch by Grover Rye depicts how Garners Ferry might have looked in 1780 at the time of the Battle of Camden.

The first ferry across the Wateree River was operated by Simmons then Brisbane, and later Garner. This sketch by Grover Rye depicts how Garners Ferry might have looked in 1780 at the time of the Battle of Camden.

Colonel Brisbane was a magistrate in the Richland District, where he died in the summer of 1799. In 1813, the ferry became known as Garners Ferry when Garner bought it from Brisbane. It was used until 1922 when a bridge was constructed across the Wateree River. The Garner house site is still on Goodwill Plantation.

Daniel Huger II names Goodwill Plantation

In 1779, Daniel Huger II purchased 12 of the early lands grants and renamed his property Goodwill Plantation. Huger was born February 20, 1741, at Limerick Plantation and died July 1, 1799, in Charleston.

Daniel Huger II was a delegate and a representative from S.C. to the colonial assembly of 1773–1775, justice of the peace in 1775, member of the State House of Representatives from 1786 to1788, and elected the first and second Continental Congress. He retired in 1793 and resided in Charleston and at Goodwill Plantation. He was a brother of General Isaac Huger, Col. Francis John Huger, and Major Benjamin Huger of the Continental Line.

This sketch by Grover Rye depicts how the toll sign at Garners Ferry might have looked.

This sketch by Grover Rye depicts how the toll sign at Garners Ferry might have looked.

General Issac Huger, who had served in the Revolutionary War with General Francis Marion, brought Marion to Goodwill Plantation many times. General Thomas Sumter, who owned a river boat landing just above Goodwill on the Wateree River, was also a frequent visitor.

Sumter was very interested in the dams and dikes to keep the flood waters out of the fields. The dams and dikes that had been built by early land grant owners around 1760 had been built higher and much longer by Huger. He also started to plant rice in the swamps after he got control of the flood waters.

Huger died in 1799 and his son, Daniel Elliott Huger, became the owner of Goodwill Plantation. After Daniel Elliott Huger’s death in 1854, his estate sold the plantation four years later to Edward Barnwell Heyward.

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